Operation Phoenix & Raven
by Ordo Warrior
Summary: Continuing from Best of Spartans and Spectres. Commander Shepard has been captured and Noble Six turns to the one group that can help save her, but will that help come at too great of a cost?
1. All ends are beginnings

**A/N:** Its been a while but as promised, the story will continue(most of the wait was because I was trying to think of a new title and summary and took forever to reach, pun not fully intended) and trying to deal with everything else life is still throwing at me.

* * *

><p>The alarms were blaring as Six was fighting through another battle, against strange hostile forces that were trying to kill her. She was tossed against a wall, but she wasn't going to lie down and let this happen without a fight. Not again. She started to try and remember where everything went wrong like this. She wondered if it would have been better if she had just died on Reach instead of finding her way here to this galaxy.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Two years ago…<em>

It didn't take long for Six to reach the Cerberus station that now housed the Black Cat-class subprowler and some of the UNSC weaponry she didn't have with her when they left for that fated mission on Eden Prime. Once the Sabre had landed in the hangar, Six quickly jumped out before the thrusters were even cooled and tossing an OSD to one of the technicians, "Alliance Luna AI."

Six continued toward the Cat, grabbing any spare weapons she could along the way; an MA37 assault rifle, a second M6G pistol, an M45 tactical shotgun and as many grenades as she could hang on her belt. "Noble Six, the Director and Illusive Man wish to speak with you."

Six wasn't slowing down, "Tell them I'll speak with them when I get back!"

"They say it relates to what you're about to do."

Six didn't have time for this, but it would seem she wasn't the only one concerned with Shepard's survival. Reaching the comm room, Six found Miranda Lawson waiting as holograms of the Director and Illusive Man appeared before them. "_Noble Six. It sounds like you're causing quite a stir on that station._"

"It's nothing, sirs."

Six was about to leave before Miranda cut her off, "Just where do you think you're going?"

"Somewhere else." Six knew she could never put fear into Miranda, but that didn't stop her from wanting to toss her aside like a ragdoll, which she probably could.

"_We've watched what transpired on the Normandy, Noble Six. Commander Shepard's capture, a new enemy…these are very dire times._"

"_Which is why we can't let her be taken._" The Illusive Man released a ring of smoke from his cigarette. "_And I'm ordering Gamma squad to accompany you._" A squad of men in Cerberus Assault Armor walked in. Six was still taller than any of them by roughly half a foot, but she could see they were a well-trained group of soldiers.

A map of the galaxy was then put on display, "_Your ingenuity to have Dot act like a homing beacon was inspired. We've already sent ships to slow the enemy down, long enough for you to get back there and retrieve Shepard._"

Seeing these soldiers, Six was feeling like there was information she wasn't privy to, "Do we know anything about these hostiles, sirs?"

"_Nothing concrete at the moment. I have teams working on finding more information. But right now your priority should be the retrieval of Commander Shepard, at any cost. Even with the Prothean vision burned into your mind, the Commander is our key to stopping the Reapers._"

Miranda smirked to Six, "And I'll be waiting here when you return."

Six walked away, but Gamma squad's leader stepped into her path. "Sergeant Marcus, ma'am. We're ready to kick ass alongside you."

However Six wasn't in the mood. She walked around him and his squad, "Load up and be ready to fight hell." Six continued to prep the subprowler and her weaponry and once Gamma was onboard, Six took off after Shepard.

* * *

><p>As planned, they used Dot's signal to project their course, and the Illusive Man had sent Cerberus cruisers and dreadnoughts in the path of the unknown aggressors to slow them down long enough for Six and the rescue team to reach the ship. Even with their numbers, they were no match for the unknown cruiser's weapons or defenses. As the subprowler arrived to watch as the once great fleet reduced to only a handful of cruisers and fighters. Six engaged the subprowler's optical camouflage before she started her scans.<p>

Gamma left their seats to scoop out the ship, and they were all caught off guard by the thing's immense size. "That's a ship?"

"Looks more like a bug mound."

"Alright Gamma, enough gawking," Marcus got his weapons ready, "We're here for one thing, to rescue Commander Shepard. Now I want everyone combat ready before we step foot inside that thing!"

Six found an open access point relatively close to Dot's signal, and with any luck she could get in and out just as quickly. Due to the Black Cat's size, Six was forced to use the portside hooks to latch onto the ship and open the doors to jump over there. Six overrode her suit's normal magnetic protocols so she could have four weapons on her as she carried her DMR in hand. Before anyone disembarked, Six turned to Gamma squad and stopped them all from leaving, "Keep the ship safe."

"Whoa there cowboy," Marcus grabbed Six's shoulder, "You're not going in there alone."

Six shrugged Marcus' hand off, "You'll only slow me down. And I have a fix on her location." She jumped out and onto the unknown craft before Marcus could stop her again. Six's motion tracker was picking up dozens of hostiles, most of them below her position. Fortunately Dot's signal was leading up. Six kicked it into high gear, getting her old lone wolf style tactics back into practice and remaining in the shadows.

Six managed to maintain her secrecy but as she observed some of the hostiles, she noticed they weren't exactly behaving normally. Six has observed behavior from Covenant forces, Insurrectionist, even members of the UNSC, some of which she had been ordered to eliminate, but these bugs displayed nothing she was used to seeing. None of them were rotating shifts, they weren't gossiping or speaking with one another, they had no one eating or sleeping while on duty and they seemed too preoccupied with whatever tasks they were doing to even care that they've been under attack the entire time or why.

Pushing aside these unusual observations, Six moved on until she finally found Shepard. She had been placed into a cocoon or pod of some type, though she could see it was not completely organic as there was a clear glass-like cover over her head. One of the bugs was on a terminal next to the pod and the readings continued to flash red, never a good sign. Six quietly crept up to the worker and stabbed her combat knife into its back, snapping its neck just to be certain. Carefully laying the thing onto the ground, she started to take a closer examination at the body; no nasal or orifice that she could discern, and the exoskeleton was indeed organic, yet far stronger than any Yanme'e exoskeleton. Whatever they were, they didn't seem to require the many needs most organics had to have.

Six couldn't read a thing from the terminal. She was forced to retrieve Dot and get answers from her. Six had noticed a lack of a detectable atmosphere within the ship, though fortunately Shepard still had her helmet on. Six jammed her knife into a crack in the casing and pried it open. The air in the pod quickly escaped as Six turned Shepard over and pulled Dot from her suit.

With the AI back in her head, Six looked around to ensure the area was still clear. "Dot, situation report."

"_Noble Six, the unknown hostiles were attempting to extract the Lieutenant Commander's essence for data analysis._"

"Essence?"

"_They were attempting to break the Lieutenant Commander down on a genetic level. As per your orders, I was forced to cause anomalies with the Lieutenant Commander's life signs to delay their procedures. I fear I may have put the Lieutenant Commander at a greater risk than anticipated._"

Six looked back to Shepard, "Explain."

"_I deregulated the Lieutenant Commander's suit life support systems and available oxygen levels. The unidentified hostiles were attempting to find the sources of these irregularities and undo them before they started their procedures._"

She continued to glance toward Shepard, unwilling to look her in the eyes just yet, "How much time does she have?"

"_Before the pod was opened, roughly an hour of breathable atmosphere. Since depressurization, less than twenty minutes are available to her._"

Six started to look over the pod, "Can this thing keep her safe?"

"_Yes. However, there are functions that were meant for the genetic gathering. Without a constant command input, these systems will eventually auto-execute._"

"Dot, continue to protect the Commander. We're getting off this ship." Six found a slot to put Dot into, closing the pod back up once Dot confirmed she had full control over the pod's systems. "Gamma, I have the Commander. Returning to the ship now."

"_You might want to put a hold on that!_" Marcus was under heavy gunfire, "_Looks like our hosts knows they have unwelcomed guests!_"

Six swapped her DMR for the M45 tactical shotgun as she started pulling the pod, rushing back to the ship. "Maintain positions. We need immediate dust off. The Commander has about fifteen minutes of air."

"_In about twenty seconds we're gonna have bugs up to our helmets. Six, there's a Cerberus fighter just outside waiting for you and the Commander. Reach it and get out of here._"

"Negative. We're almost back at the ship, Gamma. Just hold them off a bit longer." There was only silence. "Marcus!" Suddenly a violent quake rocked the area as fire blasted down a few of the tunnels. Six didn't have much time left now, keeping her own timer on mind for the Commander, and if the enemy has already decimated the Cerberus fleet as quickly as it did the _Normandy_, even less. Six pushed the pod down the charred tunnel, finding the fragmented remains of the Black Cat floating in space. Six could only imagine how Gamma squad went out, probably falling back within the ship to use the entryway as a choke point. Once the enemy breached though other sections of the ship they only had a matter of moments, or at least until they set off the charges they must have activated.

Six looked back to find more of the hostiles charging toward her, bent on reclaiming their lost prize, though there were no alarms she could detect active. Six kicked the pod out as she held out for a few moments longer, using the MA37 assault rifle to keep them at bay. The bugs were armed with their own assault rifles and something that acted more like the Covenant Focus Rifles with a much tighter beam. With the pod cleared, Six deactivated her boots' magnets and jumped out, continuing to fire on the enemy to catch up to the pod. As Marcus stated, a Cerberus fighter was indeed waiting for them as the cockpit opened. Six latched the pod to the underside of the fighter, ensuring it was secured and an air hose was attached before jumping into the cockpit.

It would seem the enemy wasn't all too pleased at Six's success, as the ship turned toward them to attack. The surviving fighter squadrons and the last cruiser acted as living shields to protect them until they managed to escape, followed by the few fighters left that could join her.

* * *

><p>The rescue was an utter travesty for Cerberus forces, however their goal had been achieved; the successful retrieval of Commander Shepard alive. "Get a respiratory unit down here! STAT!" Six quickly jumped out of the fighter and separated Shepard's pod from the undercarriage.<p>

As Cerberus medics rolled in the respirator, Six opened the pod as frost vented out slowly revealing strange looking insects at they continued to pull away at Shepard's armor and gnawing on parts of her body, despite obviously frigid conditions. Six quickly started to kill the bugs as Cerberus medics attempted to revitalize her. With all of the bugs dead, they moved Shepard to the med bay and Six pulled Dot out wanting to know what just happened. "I'm sorry Noble Six. Pod protocols began to initiate to dissolve the Lieutenant Commander. I decreased the internal temperatures to delay the creatures for as long as possible."

Six rushed to the medical bay, hoping it wasn't too late. The medics did everything they could do for the Commander, however deprived of oxygen, compounded with the freezing conditions, she was declared clinically brain dead after nearly an hour of attempts of revitalization. However, Miranda didn't seem too deterred. She had ordered the Commander's body be placed into suspended animation until she was ready to begin revitalization.

* * *

><p>Roughly five weeks had passed since Six 'rescued' Shepard and she was starting to feel restless as all she could do now was read on any updates Miranda had on their plans. Miranda had started gathering Cerberus' best scientists to bring Shepard back though she hadn't started yet. Miranda's primary hurdle would be stimulating Shepard's neural pathways, and once they got that the rest would be simple tissue repair and maybe a few cybernetic augments to assist with the passage of time.<p>

One day during this time the Director suddenly requested to meet with Six, in person. She wasn't sure if it was to applaud her or reprimand her. Either one, she was tempted to go just so she could beat him for some of the things in the past, but kept her composure when she did meet again. "Sir."

"Six, excellent work recovering Commander Shepard from the unknown hostiles, even if she's technically dead. So far the Alliance doesn't seem to hold much hope for her. They are currently classifying her as MIA, but from the sounds of things, I wouldn't doubt if they decided to change that to KIA soon enough."

"Sir?" Six wanting him to get on with why she was there.

"Right, forgive me." He had his hand out, "I need to barrow Dot for a bit. Don't worry, she'll be back soon enough."

She didn't have much choice, now back with Cerberus, and with how Dot was, she had to give him the AI if she didn't want to draw unnecessary attention. "If you'll excuse me sir, I'll be heading to the simulator."

"Just a moment, Noble Six. I have something I need you to do for me." The Director led her to one of the station's laboratories, "Six, I'd like you to meet another project you made possible." They were now standing next to several computers when a holographic projector created a blue sphere, "Meet the artificial intelligence unit from Luna. It's been augmented to become the Enhanced Defense Intelligence program."

"EDI?"

The Director paused for a moment at Six's acronym, "Interesting. Now, Six, I want you to speak with EDI on a regular basis. Get her use to working with humans. I'll trust that you can do this."

Before she could even accept or deny, he left her alone with the computer as EDI spoke, "Greetings. I am the Enhanced Defense Intelligence program."

Six was used to AI, but she wasn't sure what to expect from a Cerberus AI. "Hello…EDI…"

"Why do you call me EDI?"

Six looked around, "That's your name, isn't it? Take the first letters from your name, and it makes EDI. It's an acronym."

* * *

><p>As Six and EDI began to speak to one another, the director deactivated the security cameras and replaced the footage of them arriving with recorded footage of the terminal alone. The Director inserted Dot into another computer as she was now aware of her surroundings again, "Hello, Director. How may I be of assistance?"<p>

"I need a number of files decrypted. Do not use Cerberus lines. You are on an isolated system, but it would be best if you did not display this information to anyone else and only at secured locations such as this room. And you are to view Noble Six as the highest ranking UNSC personnel from now on."

"Director, you are an ONI officer. Your status outranks any military officer beyond admiral."

"Let's just have it so that you take direct orders from Six from now on. However before you initiate these changes, I would like to request you to follow two more orders from me first."

"As you wish, Director. Awaiting order."

* * *

><p>Nearly two months had since the mysterious attack on the <em>Normandy<em>, and still no sign of Commander Shepard or Noble Six. Shepard was officially classified as KIA, and just as soon as that happened the Alliance and Citadel Council were quick to start brushing the Reaper attack under the rug as an 'isolated geth incident' led by Saren. The human crew of the _Normandy_ was scattered across Alliance Space as the non-human crew weren't exactly welcomed in open arms. Hannah Shepard, the Commander's mother, attempted to help keep her daughter's crew intact with what authority she had, but it still wasn't enough.

Garrus left to go back to the Citadel, see if he could do things the right way instead of the fast way, as Shepard had shown him. But with the chaos of recovery and reconstruction, there was little he could actually achieve there, so he soon fell off the radar. Liara continued her own research, an attempt to find any more information on the Reapers, and maybe even a means of stopping them.

Tali'Zorah returned to her people, with the geth data, provided in thanks to Shepard, her pilgrimage was complete and she was accepted to a ship. Vaht continued his service to Tali, though his presence within the Migrant Fleet seemed to have many of the quarians on edge, mostly from his physical appearance.

Cortez, O'Brien and Jorge however were asked to provide their services, mostly because they were human. O'Brien had many objections to this, "Cortez, you aren't seriously considering? Look at what those assholes have done! They broke up Shepard's team and they're brushing off the Reapers as if it was a geth dreadnought!"

"And if we're lucky then all of this is just a means to put the public at ease and let them believe everything is back to normal. It was Admiral Hackett that Commander Shepard reported to, and it was his fleet that assaulted Sovereign. If Shepard trusts Hackett, I'm willing to consider he has plans on rebuilding their losses to prepare for the Reapers. What do you think, Jorge?"

Jorge looked to the Alliance guards at the entrance to the room they were in, "Well, how much did Six trust Shepard?"

"Enough to tell Shepard her real name apparently," O'Brien muttered.

"Then I think we can trust Hackett."

"So, just like that," O'Brien snapped his fingers, "we're this Hackett's personal lapdogs?"

"I wouldn't say lapdogs," Hackett and Anderson walked into the room together, "more like personal advisors for our negotiations with the Covenant and missions that need to be done under the radar."

"The Covies?"

Anderson handed Cortez a datapad, "It would appear that your friends are willing to open negotiations, however they're only willing to trade with humanity at the moment and are requesting we have at least one of our 'demons' with us during the proceedings. I'm not sure what we've got here, but we're still trying to learn from the salvage Shepard had us bring in."

Hackett took over, "Moreover, we also need those familiar with this UNSC technology to see how we can benefit from it."

O'Brien shrugged, "Well you two are barking up the wrong trees. We're not exactly the most tech savvy of people and we're used to kill their kind not long ago."

Cortez thought of something, "But, if we could convince the Covenant to hand us a few of their Engineers, they might be able to assist you even more than we could."

Jorge continued, "And then we'd be used to our best potential."

* * *

><p>The Covenant under Fleet Master Rayta Nar 'Zaconomee had violently removed the San 'Shyuum from their positions of power and have temporarily been assigned to Sangheili and select Unggoy until proper replacements can be found and trained.<p>

The Covenant had found a star system that met the requirements for the different species they had, even for the Unggoy. The system in question was a binary star system with three worlds and two gas giants. The second planet was habitable with several different ecosystems to satisfy their various needs as one of the gas giants had methane for the Unggoy to resupply with. The system itself was unreachable without the use of a Slipspace drive, technology that eluded even the Reapers.

Fleet Master Rayta was onboard _Ardent Prayer_ as Shipmaster Rho 'Barutumee oversaw the Fleet Master's safety during their meeting with the humans. They were meeting the humans within Alliance space to begin the talks, a situation Rho was not entirely comfortable with. "Fleet Master, are we certain we can trust the humans? They may be Reclaimers, but we were at war with their kind not long ago."

"Indeed we were at war with humans, however these humans are not the same as the ones we had once persecuted. I wish to see how our kind, and the Covenant, fair under peaceful conditions with them. My hope is that we can take these lessons back to our people and propagate these teachings and guide our brothers to true enlightenment."

Rho wasn't as confident, watching the human vessel arrive. "You hope for much, Fleet Master. I pray to the gods that your plan does succeed."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Well with this off the ground finally, I will do my best to continue the story all the way up to the end of the Reaper War(with a much needed fix to the ending).


	2. A wolf among dogs

The meeting between Councilor Anderson and Fleet Master Rayta Nar 'Zaconomee was rather civil, though there was some tension between Jorge and Shipmaster Rho, tension that quickly subsided once the talks were underway. Fleet Master Rayta was more than generous, willing to exchange four Huragoks for a reasonable supply of medi-gel and replication devices. Anderson also tried to offer them an ambassadorial place on the Citadel, but Fleet Master Rayta declined, stating he would assist humanity however he could and that for now they needed to withdraw and reevaluate their military strength, weaponry and strategies before they could consider such an offer. Anderson didn't push the subject any further, taking the Huragoks and providing the requested items.

* * *

><p>On Omega, Shipmistress Chur'R-Zer made good on her word to Aria, the Kig-Yar scouts were particularly useful in locating and assisting Aria in exterminating the Blue Suns, the Collectors, and the human slaves being traded. Aria was extremely satisfied with how effectively the Kig-Yar managed to keep one of the Blue Suns alive long enough to interrogate to provide detailed information on the trade and the unexpected recovery of the advanced technology that was to be traded. Unlike their previous positions within the Covenant, that was rather low in the hierarchy, Aria was giving them jobs and orders that suited their abilities and putting them at odds with many of her other guards and scouts. The Kig-Yar were used to such rivalries, amongst their own and with the lowly Unggoy, making examples of any who would attempt to remove a Kig-Yar or prevent them from completing their task.<p>

The Kig-Yar and T'vaoans were even able to learn the identity of the pesky 'Archangel' who was starting to kill off gangs and mercs stupid enough to walk into his trap. Aria allowed the turian to continue his games, so long as he and his team didn't decide to interfere with her business, that's all she cared about. His attempt to 'clean' Omega of its corrupt amused her nonetheless, and for some extra credits some of the Kig-Yar or T'vaoans even provided Archangel with intel on locations of gang meetings and dealing sites as well as ways to avoid angering Aria unnecessarily.

* * *

><p>Miranda had temporarily handed Wilson control over the Lazarus Project while she recruited someone she had found to be of particular interest for Cerberus. The Illusive Man also had other plans he wanted to initiate. "<em>Noble Six, I want you to assist in the construction of the<em> _Normandy_."

Six knew he wasn't talking about the _SSV_ _Normandy_ seeing how it had crashed on Alchera about three months ago. "How could I help, sir? I'm not an engineer."

The Director assured her, "_No, but you are a pilot and a soldier. Plus, you and Dot are the only ones who understand the UNSC ship technology used on the prowler. I need both of you to work with Cerberus' engineers to improve on the previous Normandy's design. And if you're concerned about expenses and budgets, don't be. The revival of Shepard and the construction of the Normandy are our only priorities at this time. Dot?_"

"I will do my best to provide technical schematics and details for material creation and construction."

Six had little choice now, but if they were going to use the ship, she wanted to make sure it was fit to survive an attack like last time and bite back. "Are we planning on assaulting the ones who attack us, sir?"

The Illusive Man fell quiet for a moment. "_Before the Commander wakes up, she'll need a ship. The Reapers are just the tip of the iceberg that threatens humanity. I'm entrusting the two of you to help create a worth vessel._"

* * *

><p>Dot provided Cerberus with the details for crafting vanadium steel, TR steel alloy, titanium-A armor plating, and how to have the different metal's correspond with one another during construction. Six wouldn't allow Dot to reveal the process to create the Black Cat's stealth ablative coating, technology Six didn't trust in Cerberus hands, otherwise she was mostly just monitored the work for Dot, throwing her hands into it whenever the engineers started doing something that would only cause structural problems down the road for the ship when it started to fly across space. During this long process, Six occasionally took time to speak with EDI, getting her prepared to work with humans and trying to avoid the subject on the incident she had created on the Luna base.<p>

As the months continued to pass, Six also started to hear rather disheartening rumors that Cerberus had created a clone of Commander Shepard as a failsafe, should revitalization hit any snags. Even as a rumor, she has learned that there's usually more behind them, if one looks deep enough. Six decided to confront the Illusive Man about this information. "_Ah, Six. How goes the construction?_"

"Fairly well, sir. We've already have the superstructure completed. Internal designing and hull integrity testing have started."

"_Excellent, but I don't believe you're here just to update me on your progress._"

Six had leeway to divert her eyes from him within the confines of her helmet without looking like she was looking away. "Sir, I've heard rumor that you've created a clone of Commander Shepard, should Miranda Lawson fail to revive her."

The Illusive Man stared right though Six with his augmented eyes, "_Six, I can assure you, the clone was created to benefit Shepard. During the proceedings the Commander might need a new organ, a limb, or tissue transplant. It is to Miranda's discretion to use it as she sees fit. But do not be mistaken, a cheap imitation is just that. If this is to succeed we need the real Commander Shepard at the helm._"

Six could tell the Illusive Man was being honest with her about wanting Shepard back at least, though he was still a hard man to read. "Sir, permission to request a transfer."

The Illusive Man released a puff of smoke as it created a halo, "_To where exactly?_"

"The Lazarus Research Station."

"_What about the_ _Normandy_?"

"Dot is still supervising and has all of my notes on my suggestions for the internal designs. Whether your engineers use them is another matter, sir."

The Illusive Man quietly pulled up security feeds of the engineers at work as the Director was with Dot now assisting with the supervision. "_Very well. The Commander will need a friendly face to greet her when she wakes up. However before you go,_" The Illusive Man pulled up a hologram of a Cerberus operative, "_We've recently lost contact with one of our agents near the Omega-4 Relay. I want someone to investigate before we jump to any conclusions._"

* * *

><p>Vaht's 2.4 meter height made his time on the Migrant Fleet rather uncomfortable, but he would continue his father's life debt as promised. He also found the quarian's needs to be rather cumbersome as well, coming into question how one of their kind could have saved the life of the Light of Sanghelios. But having seen and fought alongside Tali'Zorah in combat against the geth he had to give the species some credit. "I do not understand your people," starting another conversation with Tali as the two traveled through the <em>Neema<em>, "Why have you forced yourselves into exile for so long. I've seen you in combat against the geth. You were their creators. You should not allow them to hold you in such fear for they will never feel the same dread."

"Most of our ships aren't made for fighting. And the ships that are aren't in the best conditions or use the latest technology." Tali then stopped herself, looking out the viewport they were next to. "How many times do we have to have this discussion?"

Vaht turned, "Until I can understand. Our teachings of the Ancients have shown us the dangers of such Associated Intelligences, for it was one of them that betrayed the Forerunners and aided the Parasite. Your species was spared utter annihilation and instead forced into this delayed extinction by the other races."

"We aren't…"

"Look around," Vaht threw out his arms, "your ships are in disrepair, never allowed access to dry dock, your people are forced to salvage ships that should be in the scrapyard, your species is viewed as nothing more than scavengers and beggars, your own bodies have become weakened and the geth now wage a campaign against all at the bidding of their gods."

Tali though felt like there was something else he wasn't telling her. "This isn't about my people or the geth, is it?"

Vaht finally lowered his head, "Yes and no. I fear this is more about the humans who attacked your people roughly six cycles ago."

Tali still wasn't used to how anyone could view a day to be 265 hours, though she never inquired how the Covenant decided on such unusual time intervals. "You mean Cerberus? Well they aren't exactly the best representatives of their species, not like Shepard…"

"Yes, we have also encountered a splinter group of humans that fought against their own kind. The humans called them 'Insurrectionists'. Though we cared little, they were all viewed as heretics at the time and were to be exterminated just the same. Though, I had wished you would have allowed me to be of assistance in repelling the humans who invaded that ship. They would've been hunted and killed before they could get as far as they did."

"I think it was for the better that you didn't. We wouldn't want to you break into old habits again." Vaht was still conflicted, he knew humans were no longer his enemy, but such bad blood does not wash away so quickly or easily.

* * *

><p>Six was used to these kinds of ops. No one says anything, and whatever they're after is usually return in one piece. This time around it was a rescue mission; one of their deep cover operatives was feared lost to unknown forces with incriminating intel. His signal was lost on the planet Lorek in the Fathar system, where a known Eclipse base was. Six was going to drop from orbit in a drop pod to exterminate the Eclipse forces and extract the operative, if the operative wasn't savable then then recover of all intel took precedence.<p>

Six has done this for ONI before, nothing new. She was cleaning up someone else's mess and killing everyone stopping her. The Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle was made almost identical to the ones used by the UNSC. A few modifications were made that provided a few extra inches of metal, like it would help if the pod didn't enter atmosphere in just the right angel. The waiting was always a drag, Six check the weapons she had on the racks lining the side of her seat again, holding onto to the grips that would help alter her decent if needed after breaking through the atmosphere.

Six was inside the pod the entire time since they left the dock. She didn't want to interact with anyone. She was going to get the job done, like she always has. What friends she had, what allies she could trust, they were well beyond her reach now and all she could do was bunker down until Shepard was brought back to fighting order.

"_Beginning orbital sync._" The ship was now above the base as the drop bay opened up. "_Dropping in three. Two. One. Mark._" Six could feel the detachment as the pod was now freefalling to the planet's surface.

A hairline crack in the glass, faulty drag chute not deploying, the ceramic armor burning up too quickly, breaking rockets not engaging; so many things could go wrong and the only reason they were running through her mind, beside the pods that have met these unfortunate ends, was because they were built by Cerberus without being tested. The only comfort Six had was that Dot had the specifications for the originals and Cerberus built it to those specifications. The only grantee she had was not getting shot down. No one in this galaxy has experienced an orbital drop on them and they won't live to tell about it.

The drop through the atmosphere was still rough and she could see the base getting closer. There were a few Eclipse mercenaries coming out of the base trying to figure out what she was. Gathering together would only make Six's job that much faster. She shifted the trajectory just slightly to land on a solid platform. When the landing was complete, one of the Eclipse mercs tried to look inside but the hatch blasted open, killing him on impact. Six already had her hand on the M45 shotgun she brought along for the mission, jumping out and killing the salarian next to the pod with a close up blast to the helmet. Six rolled to cover, grabbing the salarian's pistol as she opened fire on the last two Eclipse mercs in her way. With their shields down Six popped back up and blasted the two of them off the railing and down the canyon the base was overlooking.

Six knew her entrance was going to draw plenty of attention, so she returned to the pod and grab the only other weapon she brought with her, the M392 DMR. Instead of rushing through the door into the compound, she hid beside the wall as a hail of fire came through. Six activated a frag grenade and tossed it in, counting off when the grenade exploded after it hit the ground. Now she moved in after confirming the blast killed them all.

Six checked the room adjacent to her entry point to find spare medi-gel and a locker that was filled with credit chits. The room had two other door and both looked lock. Six didn't have the technical skills to open the door so instead she pulled out some plastic explosives and planted them on the sides of the doors. She also placed one in front of the cover right in front a door. She pounded hard against one of the doors then activated the active camouflage as more Eclipse soldiers rushed in. Six moved out of the blast radius and behind cover before detonating the explosives, killing the remaining Eclipse before they realized who had invaded.

Six's motion tracker wasn't picking up anything else, giving her time to check through the area. She had spotted a terminal earlier and fortunately it wasn't damaged by any of the explosions. As she read through the data it would seem that the data was hotter than she was lead to believe. The data the Eclipse managed to snag was related to the rachni experiments and possibly more. It would also seem that Cerberus' undercover operative wasn't as undercover as he thought. Fortunately Eclipse didn't get the cipher needed to crack the data but the operative in question probably didn't survive.

Six continued with caution through the base, keeping her eyes out for anything else that might try to jump her. Using a salarian's omni-tool to bypass security Six walked into the interrogation room to find Agent Rawlings' body, cut up, burned and bloodied from the procedures. The final blow was probably the hold between his eyes, but Six didn't have anything to worry about with him. A terminal nearby had all of the data regarding Cerberus' activities. Transferring the files onto an OSD drive, she hid it into one of her pouches wondering what she could do with the data. Without Dot she wouldn't be able to decipher the data, but if she attempted to relay the data to the Alliance she'd probably be discovered and it would be years before anything would come of it.

Back outside next to her drop point, Six got in contact with the ship she deployed from. "Six reporting. Mission complete. Requesting extraction." Six gathered up all of the important equipment for extraction, bringing the pod back to prevent the design from falling outside of human hands. Six was now wondering to herself if she was going to be used like an attack dog again, but time would tell her fate until Shepard's revival.

* * *

><p>Returning to the space station, Six was meeting with the Illusive Man again. "<em>Noble Six. Excellent work on Lorek. It was unfortunate that you couldn't save Agent Rawlings. From your account you said the Eclipse deleted the data before you could recover it.<em>"

"One of them ran back to the interrogation room to wipe the data. He shot himself in the head before I could stop him."

"_I see._" Six stood tall, knowing she could survive against anything they might try to throw at her, but that wasn't her concern. Her concerns were for Shepard and what they had planned for her. "_Thank you, Noble Six. That'll be all, for now. We will contact Miranda if we require your services again._"

* * *

><p>Not long after her discussion with the Illusive Man, Six prepared herself for quite the stay on the research station, or whenever she was to be called out for a mission. She had grabbed her M392 DMR, an M45 tactical shotgun on her back and the M6G pistol holstered to her hip. The first person to greet her as she departed the shuttle at the Lazarus station was a man of African descent, "Damn, I didn't think we needed a walking armory for such a quiet facility." Six ignored him and the security mechs they had, walking past them all as she made a beeline to the observation room of Miranda's procedures. Six wasn't sure how to explain to Shepard about her awakening in a Cerberus facility, she wasn't even sure if Shepard would ever want to speak with her again once the truth was known. The only thing Six knew was that once Shepard was back, they could worry about the real threat, the Reapers.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Six has started back down her lone wolf path, all to protect Shepard. But is she sacrificing more than she should for someone she barely knows personally?


	3. Old habits die hard

Cortez, O'Brien and Jorge were reviewing the Alliance's defense of the colony Fehl Prime. "Damn, the Alliance took a beating from those Blood Pack guys. Although, I do applauded that sniper of theirs for the shot with the injury to his neck."

"Whenever I see 'em krogan I can't help but feel like someone decided to fuse a Brute and an Elite together to make one of 'em."

O'Brien nodded to Jorge, "I get the same feeling sometimes, big guy."

Admiral Hackett walked in, "So have you finished overviewing what went wrong with the initial battle strategy for the defense of Fehl Prime?"

O'Brien didn't even turn to look to Hackett, "Yeah, not sending us in."

Cortez however saluted to Hackett before he showed his own changes to their plans, "Sir, you had your shuttles too clustered together. The strategist had assumed the initial shuttle airstrike would deal a crippling blow to hostile forces. However due to the hardiness of the two species that were engaged, they made a gross underestimation in enemy survivability."

Jorge continued, "And once the enemy was back on their feet, they kicked the chops off your boys before they knew what hit 'em."

"Exactly. Instead of an airstrike, a precision orbital strike from the cruiser would have proved more effective in eliminating initial hostile resistance. During the confusion and bracing for a secondary strike, your ground teams could have touched down behind enemy lines undetected and began a systematic elimination of their numbers from the back ranks, either silently or in open combat."

Hackett didn't say a word. He just looked at their reevaluation of the situation. "I'll have Intel look into shifting their tactics, and hopefully these changes will save lives." The four of them walked back out as one of the Huragok floated by. "How much of the refits have you finished?"

Even though the Huragoks lacked any normal means of communication, they have developed a software program and installed them into Alliance omni-tools to interoperate their version of hand signals and bioluminescent flashes. O'Brien was still a little uneasy about them, "I still can't believe we're letting these things make more of themselves."

Jorge pointed out to one of the shipyard's arms where five cruisers were being built, "Without 'em, the Alliance wouldn't be able to recover from the losses they suffered from Sovereign. Can't let those bastards think they're top dog."

O'Brien shrugged, "I suppose, but I'd rather be out on the field then continuing this office job."

Cortez slapped O'Brien's back, "Don't worry, we'll get our chance. And you'll get to see Williams again. I promise."

* * *

><p>As much as Six was against it, she eventually acquired her own omni-tool. The tool was very versatile and, oddly enough, integrated rather smoothly with her MJOLNIR armor's systems. Though the hologram on her left arm was something she still had to get used to, with some aid from Dot and EDI, she managed to work the omni-tool's interface to work with the tacpad on her forearm for familiarity's sake. With this omni-tool Six was able to integrate the four armor abilities she had and could manage them without the aid of Dot to shift between them, even finding a means of using two of the abilities simultaneously without overloading her suit's systems.<p>

While on the station Six had Kameko hanging on her again, something she hadn't worn for a while now, and it felt good to have her out again. Six would occasionally coddle her with one of her hands, ignoring any Cerberus personnel who would ask her about Kameko.

While Six was synching her omni-tool to more of her armor's systems and weapons at the firing range, Jacob decided to join her to try and have her open up. All Six knew about Jacob was that he was one of the many people Miranda had recruited into Cerberus, though he was no scientists. Jacob was here to act as head of security. Why she wasn't asked to do the job somewhat plagued her mind, though it was something she'd have to ask Miranda once Shepard was on her feet.

Six was checking on the shotgun's adaptation to Dot's latest suggested modifications. Firing her sixth shot, Six popped the heat sink out throwing it into one of her pouches as she grabbed another and inserted it like she would have inserted the 8 gauge shells and started firing after cocking it. Jacob took his time firing a pistol next to her at his own targets. After her next sixth shot, Six was now testing the cooldown, making sure her HUD also displayed it.

Jacob noticed her waiting, trying to start a conversation with her, "Funny, I didn't think anyone still used heat sinks after the upgrade to thermal clips."

"When you live with limited ammunition for most of your life, you tend to appreciate nearly unlimited ammo, even if you have to wait for it." Six started firing again, "But in dire situations," interrupting herself as she popped one out and inserted a new heat sink, quickly firing on the targets again, "you take every advantage you can give yourself." That was the most she had ever spoken with anyone on the station, and she was planning on keeping it that way if possible.

* * *

><p>Six was ordered out on another mission, this time she was out investigating a rumored illegal archeological dig in the Enoch System. It is believed that Prothean relics had been found there, or something else of interest. Six was ordered to use the shuttle this time as they were not expecting much beyond a few shots out of misunderstanding.<p>

Nothing is ever that simple. On her approach to the dig site Six spotted a Blue Suns mercenary running back into the facility. Thanks to the Cerberus colors no doubt calling in reinforcements to take her out. Six thought of a rather unusual idea. She pulled out the active camo system from her suit, and with a little finagling with her omni-tool, allowed the shuttle to cloak. Six rushed out, sealing the shuttle back up to keep the illusion as she rushed to cover behind some convenient rock formations.

Six readied her combat knife and pistol as she listened for the mercs to return. Fortunately it wasn't raining otherwise there would be no point for the cloaking. She tapped the system directly into shuttle's power cells so it should last longer than when she would use it. As the Blue Suns returned they found nothing. "There was a Cerberus shuttle here! Search they area, they had to have left something."

Fortunately for Six the rocks she was hiding behind gave her enough room to sit back up. Sooner or later she was going to end up killing all of them, the only question was how loud it was going to be. The batarian from before was holding his position near the door as the others checked behind the rocks. Six's motion tracker only picked up two of them moving around, but she was certain there was more of them close by. Just as one of them was about to look over her cover some rocks from the cliff face fell, distracting them long enough for Six to drive her knife into the mercenary's throat and pull him over to hide the body.

"Come out Rodgers. This isn't funny." Six watched her motion tractor as the mercenary moved closer to her. "Rodgers?"

Six jammed her knife into the mercs neck, letting him bleed as he tried to pull it out. This was also used to scare the batarian into calling out more soldiers, "Reinforcements! I need reinforcements up here! Now!?"

Six opened fire, bringing down the batarian's shields just as the doors opened with two more of them. Six managed to put a shot through the batarian's top left eye just as two more mercs walked out the door.

If the mercs didn't believe him before, they sure as hell do now. "_Emergency! We've got hostiles trying to break in!_"

"_How many?_"

"_We can confirm one so far._" Six tossed a grenade from cover, reaching the cover the two were behind and blasting them both.

"_Damn it! Get more people out there!_" Thanks to her first kill Six was now tapped into the enemy's comm channels. She quickly recovered her combat knife before getting behind cover as four more mercenaries rushed out the door. Six had been in plenty of situations like this, and she has run through at least five different scenarios in her mind on how to dispose of them.

With a plan set, Six got it rolling. She pulled the dead merc she rammed her knife over and checked his rifle. It appeared as though he may have come from target practice as the thermal clip had a few rounds expended. She plotted where her decoy was going to run as she readied the gun and her DMR.

She activated the hologram, setting it to run at a fraction of her top speed, which should emulate an average human's running speed, fast enough to not be hit anyway. As the hologram drew their attention, Six quickly popped up and threw the knife again, managing to gouge the mercenary through his helmet's visor. She pulled up her DMR while holding the assault rifle in her left as she used the rifle to tear away at their shields before putting the respective mercenary down with a round from her DMR through their skull.

The assault rifle reached thermal capacity and instead of going for a new one, she dropped that rifle as she pulled up her DMR to finish the job. All four were dropped and the hologram remained. Six deactivated it as she recovered her knife again and made sure each one was a kill. The batarian was holding an access card. She used it to open the door while she continued to listen to the mercs trying to get an update on the 'intruder'. Six paused, looking back to the shuttle and remembering she forgot something.

* * *

><p>"There's been nothing."<p>

"Don't bullshit me! Seven of our guys go dark and the invaders aren't here yet? Someone used Pegar's keycard to unlock that door five minutes ago! Why wait…" suddenly the doors were opening and the Blue Suns there opened fire with everything they had. As the smoke settled and the glare became more tolerable the shadow that collapsed was one of their own.

"Oh god…"

"Did we…?"

"No, he was dead before we filled him. That was a decoy. Stay alert, the intruders could be anywhere out there."

"Or right here…" The men behind him had their throats slit as a figure was standing behind him. Before he could react, a blade was put into his spine as a second one was jammed up his jaw to keep him silent until the blade in his spine was moved to slice the medulla oblongata at the base of his skull. And just like the other two, he was gently placed down onto the ground to not alert the rest of the base that she was already working her way through them.

* * *

><p>Six managed to find data on a map of the area, along with the last know number of mercenaries on site. They totaled at 25, and she had already dealt with ten of them. From everything she has observed, these mercenaries are organized at least, with a degree of formal training, most likely a program they instigated to better themselves and the recruits. But Six's training was superior to anything she had seen in this galaxy, they were facing a worst case scenario with a one woman army.<p>

She could hear the mercs trying to get status updates on the intruder, and each call was meth with no response. The next area was too open to engage and they also had the high ground to coordinate with. However the door at the end of the area wasn't locked and from the read out on the map, there was a side passage right up that ramp. All she had to do was sneak across, kill the mercs on the other side quietly and continue.

Six activated her active camouflage to cut across the area. Six subverted power from her nonessential systems to drastically boost the overall time she would have with the camouflage active. She opened the door while with knives out. The room only had two guards who looked out curious as to what opened the door. Six quickly pounced them while she used both blades to silence their throats. Six left them to bleed as she rushed the door adjacent to them as she grabbed the next two men who were investigating the thuds of the other mercs landing on the ground hard. She grabbed the men with her hands and crushed their necks quickly before a nerve reaction could cause sporadic finger twitches and weapons fire.

Six wouldn't have much time to act before the next area tried to lock themselves down with their positions, because now it was going to turn into a typical firefight for her. Fortunately for her, her most recent kills were still drawing a few mercs to her though she had to act quickly to keep some surprise for the next area.

She recovered her knife first and just barely had enough time to throw it as the turning merc. He back stepped against the wall as his partner tried to help. Six punched him hard enough that she snapped his neck just from the impact. Before he hit the floor she pulled him across and pulled the knife out. From one of her pouches she pulled out titanium wire and jumped the next mercenary, wrapping it around his neck three times. She was using him as a shield now, raising his arm and rifle as they were aimed at the other guard. Six was fortunate this one was human because of the turian dish bowl around their neck, armor setup and the scales pointed back would make it somewhat difficult to wrap the garrote around the neck and hold him effectively. The other reason she wanted it to be a human was so she could use him as a shield while she started to put rounds into his turian buddy. When he fell, she tightened the grip just enough until he stopped struggling and was unconscious. Six couldn't allow anyone reporting about the situation to others of their outfit, so she snapped his neck and then retrieved her garrote.

Six figured they had to know she was near now. And from the layout of this archeological dig, they were trapped. She could wait them out, using their own supplies to allow herself ample time to just starve them out, but she wasn't going to. After reacquiring Emile's kukri, she readied herself for whatever they might have. From what she could see they weren't at the tunnel door yet, though none of them had moved to stop her. From the chatter, they are assuming an attack squad and are trying to bunker down. Six looked around a bit since this area seemed to be the staging area for the dig. A terminal showed that the Blue Suns were contracted to work with an ExoGeni team for security and transport. From what was evident, it would appear that the Blue Suns decided to take the dig and its valuables instead.

Continuing down the pathway and into the next area, she spotted two turians trying to fortify their position with the crates a turian with tech armor and a shotgun organized them. Six was cursing herself for a moment because she didn't bring her sniper rifle, but she still had a way of handling them just as quickly. Six pulled out a grenade and activated her camo tech. She climbed over a box to jump onto the walkway, Six grabbed the shotgun carrying turian, breaking his right arm just as she tossed the grenade. Six used the turian as cover just as the grenade went off. The turian's tech armor protected him from some of the shrapnel but it wouldn't stop the blade that had just entered his eye.

There was no point to being subtle any more as she pulled the knife out and let the corpse slam onto the floor, her hands covered in both human and turian blood now. Six grabbed the shotgun from his hand, a heavy model with only one shot per thermal clip. She took a few thermal clips from the turian before examining the glass before her, it was thick and with how the slugs shatter on impact, the glass was thick enough to survive long enough to be useful to her.

Six set her hologram to run to cover before going invisible herself. The enemy exposed themselves, four of them left, three grunts and another tech armor user. She wouldn't be able to get much use of the shotgun against the group with how spread they were, though she could work from their back ranks, depending on how loud it was.

Six snuck past and was standing behind the merc furthest from the others. Six fired the shotgun, not expecting the massive kickback as it flew out of her hands, but it did kill the merc just the same. The other mercenaries rushed to better cover now just as Six fell back to the glass.

Six timed the shots now as she watched them. The two turians had the basic M-8 Avenger, good rate of fire and clustering when fired in moderation with its primary drawback being its relatively low damage rating. The man with the tech armor was using the burst shot M-15 Vindicator, major flaw was the consumption rate of thermal clips and kickback that threw off the aim forcing the user to aim lower for all of the shots to hit.

They were trying to break the glass, and given time they would, but Six was going to end this now. She made sure her energy shield was still engaged before jumping over and landing on the turian below her. She picked the turian up and used him as a shield while pulling his arms back until she heard his arms dislocate and used his assault rifle against his comrades. When the other turian lost his shielding Six quickly dropped him with three shots through his helmet's visor.

All that was left now was the leader who was hiding behind the pillar again. Six snapped the turian's neck and fired a few shot to try and coax him out and fight back. He did and shot at her only to find it was a hologram. The merc tried to find out where she had disappeared to only feel the metal of her DMR against the back of his head.

"Alright, alright. I give. Take me to jail or whatever you were planning to do." Six wasn't there for prisoners. She executed him with a single shot and scouted the area. Six found a datapad noting the Blue Suns betraying their employers here and gathering at a base converted from a captured frigate.

She was certain that Cerberus was going to send her off to 'investigate' later but right now she was here for one thing, the Prothean artifact. They had just unearthed the relic and were trying to access the data it held. Though, perhaps someone who was infused with their knowledge might have better luck. The moment her hand touched the holographic keyboard she was blasted with another vision, or more accurately the old vision resurfaced as some of the shadows were replaced by the attackers of the _Normandy_. When it ended it felt just like when the beacons gave her the vision to begin with. But now she was wondering how the Protheans knew about these insectoids and what more could there be behind them?

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I figured with a lethal weapon like Six at their disposal, Cerberus would try to use her like ONI did at least until Shepard is back in action.


	4. Stress of the times

Just as Six had anticipated, because of the Blue Sun's involvement in the archeological dig site she was sent to investigate the _MSV Strontium Mule_. Six was in charge of this mission completely and given a small team to deal with them. Instead of a Cerberus ship, they were using one of Cerberus' front company cargo haulers. Approaching from the rear of the _Strontium Mule_ Six and a hacker free floated to the ship while the others in the cargo hauler approached as though they were checking on the distress signal.

Magnetized to the hull, Six was now waiting on the hacker before proceeding. "Okay, I've got ship wide control. There aren't too many systems still functioning. Comms are dead, minus the general distress signal. The FTL drive is shotty at best. Life support, gravity, doors, lights are at least functioning properly… Looks like the mercs are preparing to board our ship once they move to investigate the distress signal and attach to the airlock."

"Do you know where they have their stash of loot they've stolen?"

A map was uploaded to Six's omni-tool, "There we go. Starboard side compartment. Module 3."

"Can you detach the module?"

"It shouldn't be too difficult. Just got to get to the manual release on the hull and then…"

"Get to work. And lockdown the ship on my command." Six pulled out a few plastic charges, tossing a few to the hacker. "Set them up on a few of the joints. Once you break free we won't have much time to act. Make sure the ship is ready to take the compartment before we destroy the rest."

Six knew the charges weren't enough to obliterate the ship, but they would break it apart and suck the Blue Suns out. The ones with helmets they'll have to deal with, but the ones who weren't will wish they were wearing them.

After planting a few charges herself, Six carefully placed two breach charges onto the glass of the bridge. Six could only guess as to what the Suns were thinking now that the 'cargo hauler' had not docked with the ship to investigate yet. "_The charges are set and I'm on top of the container._"

Six pulled out two detonators, "Operation underway. Target the stragglers. No survivors." The first detonator was activated, breaking the ship apart into the components. The explosive blasts and vacuum of space dwindled their numbers quickly, as a Cerberus strike team that was prepared for zero-g combat swiftly eliminated the remaining Blue Suns who were unlucky to still be alive.

Soon after the separation happened and the surviving Suns were being wiped out by Cerberus, Six detonated her breach charges, sucking out the Blue Suns in the cockpit. She patiently waited for them to float into view before picking them off with a sniper rifle to ensure they were dead. With the area cleared, Six jumped down and checked the bridge terminals. "_Uh oh… Looks like we need a special encryption to open the lockers, ma'am. It'd probably take at least a week for…_"

"No need." Six was inside the drifting bridge, "The captain left the decryption key in his final log entry. The Suns were trying to get the key from him, but they probably never through he'd hide it in such an obvious location. Transmitting the decryption key now. Grab what's valuable and rendezvous with the ship." Six opened the door and climbed onto the side, kicking off to propel herself faster toward their ship.

* * *

><p>The months seemed to have blurred for Liara now. All of her efforts and every resource she could get her hands on were committed to finding any means of stopping the Reapers. Though her reputation as a scientist has all but been shattered, her new line of work has given her new found influence in the galaxy. Becoming an information broker has given her some new leads on Prothean sites as well, hoping to find any records they may have been left about the Reapers or a plan, if any, they may have conceived to stop them.<p>

Though she occasionally worked with the Shadow Broker she was very cautious about every deal, remembering how Shepard refused to give one of the Broker's agents his data on Cerberus. As the unknown agent said, such an act wouldn't be forgotten so easily, and since she was with her, such a grudge could trickle down to associates if she wasn't careful. However she had recently received a highly encrypted message. Once decoded, the message simply requested T'Soni to meet the sender on Omega to discuss a very sensitive matter under alert eyes and ears.

Reaching the station, Liara couldn't help but feel like there was a bull's eye painted on her back as several of Aria's new Kig-Yar enforcers had weapons trained on her, a few of them making their presence known to her. Once inside Afterlife, Liara took a seat at one of the bars and waited for this contact to find her. An occasional turian or batarian would try to hit on her, but a flare of her biotics would deter them from attempting anything further. Finally an individual hiding within a trench coat and hat approach the bar and sat next to her. "I'm glad you decided to show."

"You're the one who sent me the message? Why?"

"First, I have to ask you a question. Do you believe Commander Shepard is alive?"

"Shepard is…" Liara was at a loss, all of the information she had gathered, every search she had made, all of them ended with dead end leads that were bogus to begin with. If this was a cruel joke, she would not partake in it, "Are you trying to toy with me?"

"It is a serious question."

Calming down, Liara leaned in to give her answer, "I do."

"Then heed my warning, the Shadow Broker can no longer be trusted."

"What?"

"The Collectors…" the unknown figure looked up, nodding his head to one of the Kig-Yar, who responded as he started to cry out to the other Kig-Yar and T'vaoans. Though the cries couldn't be heard by the patrons below them due to Afterlife's loud party music, the others of their kind could still pick out the message. "Speak with Aria. Also, ask her about the Shadow Broker. I'm afraid this is where our paths have to part."

Liara grabbed his shoulder, "Wait. Who are you?"

The unknown figure continued to remain hidden, "Let's just say I was given a new perspective on a life I thought was rather modest. Hopefully we can meet again."

Liara turned to where the Pirate Queen had her throne, who had been watching Liara for some time now as one of the Kig-Yar was standing next to her. Liara did what the stranger told her, she went straight to Aria to ask her, however Aria's guards stopped her advance. Aria looked down to Liara, "You want me to talk about the Collectors and the Shadow Broker."

"Were you listening in on our conversation?"

Aria brushed her hand though the Kig-Yar's head quills, "Nothing occurs on Omega without my knowing it. And that drell tried to pay me off so I would talk to you about you're little chat just now." Aria sat down on her couch, waving to her guards to let Liara pass, suggesting whatever he used worked. "All you need to know, little one, is that the Shadow Broker and the Collectors are hunting for something in particular. Shadow Broker agents are starting to scour the galaxy for one human. One that the Alliance has official stated to be dead."

Liara knew with absolute certainty now, but the others, "And the Collectors? Who are they, and how are they connected to the Shadow Broker? Why did the drell want me to meet here?"

"To the last one, he knows I never let the Broker have any of his eyes, knowingly or otherwise, on Omega live for long. And all I'm willing to tell you about the Collectors is that they're a bunch of bugs that live past the Omega-4 Relay. A lot of advance tech. Although I have come across information that suggests the Collectors are planning something big, and they have humans on their mind. As to how the Shadow Broker fits into all of this, well, the Collectors are willing to pay top credit and tech to anyone capable of retrieving certain commodities for them. More than what most slavers will ever sell in a lifetime on the black market."

* * *

><p>Although Six wanted to just wait for Shepard to reawaken, Cerberus continued to use her for months for various operations, gathering resources and hunting down Reaper and Prothean artifacts. A new reason to stay on the station arouse when she came back from another of these missions. The station was in complete disarray, the security mechs were being examined as a few bodies were already sealed away in coffins. She managed to get a sneak at one of the bodies, and the soldier was killed from behind, at point blank range from a YMIR mech's weaponry.<p>

Six went to the only person she thought was at least trustworthy to get the details. Jacob was with the rest of the security team trying to scrub a rather nasty virus from the systems that was overriding the cameras with still images of the fictional Blasto the Hanar Spectre. "What the hell happened?"

"Someone implanted a virus and hacked a number of our security mechs. The technicians are going through the others as we speak."

Six wasn't going to bother with asking about the virus itself, "Who did it and what did they want?"

"It was Rasa," Miranda returned still in a space suit, "She left before the disposal team could take the side project for termination."

"The clone…"

Six turned back to the hangar. "Where do you think you're going?"

"After your rouge agent and disposal of the clone. Where else?"

"Wait! We don't know where she went. We have no way of tracking Rasa, she made sure of that. And we've nearly got Shepard ready for her mission. If you aren't here, doesn't that make your reason for being here redundant?"

As much as Six wanted to argue against Miranda, she knew there wasn't much she could say to argue against her on that point. "The sooner she's awake, the sooner you're no longer in charge…"

* * *

><p>Not long after the incident with Rasa, Miranda's work continued. The minute brain neurological activity they were able to stimulate has started to steadily remain active without external aid. The entire project was mostly about restarting Shepard's neurological activity, restoring physical damage and preventing her body from decaying. As the project continued closer to achieving their goal, Miranda had another chat with the Illusive Man. "It looks like our sleeping beauty will be waking up sooner than expected. Now I believe the control chip should be…"<p>

"_No. We need the Commander as she is. No exception._"

"But sir, her psych profile suggests…"

"_If this mission is to succeed we need Shepard at her best. And she won't be at her best with a leash restricting her abilities. Am I understood?_"

"Yes…sir."

"_Good. Now not another word about this. You wouldn't want Six upset, now would we?_"

As the hologram of the Illusive Man disappeared, Miranda turned around to find Six standing next to the open door. Though she didn't say a word, her signals were very clear. Six then walked away, leaving the conversation with that glare of hers.

* * *

><p>Covenant colonization efforts were proceeding as expected, though many were not thrilled about the latest plans. Most of these complaints were coming from fellow Sangheili, Weapon Master Sanj'ik in particular. "Fleet Master, my craft is weapon smithing, not agriculture and child care. If I had wished that I would have stayed on our homeland. And what is this nonsense of proliferating children away from Sanghelios?"<p>

Fleet Master Rayta brought up holograms of Sovereign, husks, and the tools used to create the husks. "Saren claimed that Sovereign was a vanguard, a sentinel to usher in the Reaper's true might across this galaxy. If we had the backing of the entire Covenant fleet, I would not suggest these radical measures. However our numbers will be whittled away from underneath us if we are not astute."

"Then force the Yanme'e, the Unggoy, and the Lekgolo to increase their number as I'll better our weapons."

"I have already done so. I even have the Huragok looking to improve our ships and armors. And with the replication devices, I have ordered all of our soldiers be equipped with personal energy shields for protection…"

Sanj'ik stopped Rayta, "For our people, to bare and raise a child takes years. And we only have a hand full of females with us, including myself. We do not have the luxury of time, as we cannot wait for six or seven males to grow up and bare more. No! I will not be reduced to being nothing more than a child factory! We do not know how long we have to prepare for these Reapers."

Rayta knew many of these facts all too well, "I can only hope for at least a generation's time before their arrival…"

"And should they appear before?"

"Then we go to war with the available forces and resources we have, and pray to the gods for their favor."

* * *

><p>Six was concerned with all of the cybernetics they had put into Shepard, however Miranda assured her that they were implemented to supplement her body's long inactivity, nothing more. Though with the scare Shepard gave everyone with her premature awakening, Six was now more concerned that the station was compromised again.<p>

"We need to be absolutely certain of this, especially after that incident with the rouge agent's thief of the clone under your watch. If we go after the wrong rat…"

"I know I'm right. I measure all of the dosages myself. And I think I've narrowed it down to who," before Miranda could go into her theory a series of explosions start to rock the entire station.

Six turned back as the doors to the hallway opened to reveal five LOKI mechs, armed with pistols approach them. Six's HUD was tagging them as hostiles as one of the mechs stated, "Hostiles detected."

Six quickly drew out her pistol and opened fire on the mechs before they could. She managed to destroy three of them as Miranda used her biotics to crush the other two. The two of them knew what they had to do and they needed to wake Shepard.

* * *

><p>Cortez was unsettled by the number of colonies being abducted and the efficiency of it. O'Brien still had his own theory about it, "I still think the Covies might have a claw in this."<p>

"Please."

"It makes sense, Cortez. We know they have jamming tech that can effectively cut a colony off from the rest of the galaxy."

Jorge then pulled up images from investigations, "And since when did the Covenant get into kidnap people? They might occasionally capture prisoners but there would be signs of struggle, plasma burns, explosions, bodies, glassing. But here, it's as if someone or something nabbed everyone in the middle of what they were doing, and none of 'em had a say in the matter."

"We've never seen anything as fast and clean as this, O'Brien."

Cortez then had a rather uneasy thought. Jorge could see the uneasy on his face. "Come on, Cortez. What're you thinking about?"

"I was thinking about that unknown ship that wiped out the _Normandy_."

"The guys Six chased?" O'Brien never gave them a second thought. "If Six went after them I thought they'd all be dead by now."

Jorge had the same sentiment, though he did have an inking feeling as to something more behind why she gave chase. "So you think the bastards that could see the _Normandy_ when her stealth systems were engaged are the same ones kidnapping the colonies?"

Cortez nodded, "Remember what Joker said about his last moments on the _Normandy_? He said Shepard was having a hard time moving after she was bitten by some bug."

"Well without more evidence, the Alliance won't act on it."

O'Brien nudged Jorge's shoulder, "Too bad they don't revere Spartans like they do back in the UNSC. They might be willing to do what you say, or at least give us a bone to investigate."

* * *

><p>Miranda found a terminal connected to the intercom of the station and tried to get Shepard on her feet. "Wake up, Commander. Shepard, do you hear me? Get out of that bed now—this facility is under attack." Miranda watched the monitors as Shepard was in pain, "Shepard. Your scars aren't healed, but I need you to get moving. This facility is under attack. There's a pistol in the locker on the other side of the room. Hurry!"<p>

Miranda continued to watch Shepard as she fitted herself in the N7 armor they had ready for her and an M-3 Predator pistol. With the armor on, Shepard grabbed the pistol and examined it to ensure it was ready for combat. "_This pistol doesn't have a heat sink?_"

"Weapons have adapted to thermal clips. We'll get you a clip from…damn it!" the cameras spotted two gas tanks ignite, "Keep your head down, Shepard! Shield yourself from the blast!" Shepard took cover as the explosion removed the locked door in her way. "Someone's hacking security trying to kill you. Look for a thermal clip for your pistol." Shepard found a body with a pistol and two thermal clips.

Six was keeping an eye out for mechs, "How's she doing?"

"Look out!" That didn't sound so good, but Six was confident Shepard wouldn't fall to a bunch of low-end mechs even after two years off her feet.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I didn't want to hold off on waking Shepard up, though it does feel a bit cluttered near the end.


	5. Rude awakening

Shepard didn't know where she was or what was going on. The last thing she remembered was being inside of the _Normandy_ as Six was knocked back by an unknown hostile and her body tensing up on her. Now she was on this station being led by an unknown woman named Miranda over the speakers while security mechs attacked her and anyone else she came across with her unable to do nothing to help them behind the blast proof glass.

Something was cutting into Miranda's transmission, cutting her off mid-sentence. Shepard was still confused as to why she could suddenly use several tech based attacks, though at the moment she was willing to throw that question out the window until she got away from the rampaging mechs.

Moving to a waiting area, Shepard found the fourth living person, but unlike the others, he was fighting back and she could help him. Shepard tossed an Overload tech mine at one of the mechs, causing the man of African descent to look back, "Shepard? What the hell…" The man dropped back to cover before he shot the arm of one of the mechs, and with the fall of that wave of mechs Shepard rushed over to join him, "What are you doing here? I thought you were still a work in progress."

"I just woke up. You probably know more than I do."

"Right. Sorry about that. I'm Jacob Taylor…" Jacob looked over to the mechs, "I've been stationed here for—"

"Hostiles detected."

"Damn it!" The shots were pretty close, but the simple VI targeting systems weren't complex enough to get better than that. When there was an opening Jacob popped the head off the mech with a well-placed shot. "Things must be worse than I thought if Miranda's got you running around. I'll fill you in, but we better get you to the shuttle first."

Shepard grabbed his arm, "I know this isn't the best time, but I'm sick of stumbling around when I don't know what's going on."

"Fair enough. I'll give you the quick version. You and your ship were attacked and destroyed. You were captured. A rescue mission was mounted but when they brought you here you were dead as dead could be. Our scientists spent over a year putting you back together. You've been comatose, or worse, that whole time. Welcome back to your life."

"That's…" if Shepard wasn't leaning against the wall and crouching she might have collapsed, "I'm having some trouble wrapping my head around this."

"Yeah. I can imagine. At first the Alliance listed you as MIA, hoping to find your trail. But after a while they officially changed that to KIA. The whole galaxy thinks you're dead. And if we don't get to those shuttles, they'll be right."

Though the shock of being called dead was still lingering, Shepard next immediate thought was for the others, "Were there any other survivors from the _Normandy_?"

"I'll tell you what—you help me finish off these mechs, and I'll play Twenty Questions with you all day. We're low on thermal clips, but I'm a biotic. Just give the order when you want me to hit them with the good stuff." Jacob grabbed one of the mechs using his biotics, pulling it toward them before it fell down the chasm between the two sides.

Shepard tossed another Overload tech, causing two of the mechs to temporarily stop firing as Jacob grabbed the third in another biotic field. Shepard destroyed the head of one of the mechs she had disabled as she waited for the last one to get back up. Before the mech could finish reorienting itself Shepard destroyed it.

Jacob holstered the pistol now that the area was safe, "Okay, I promised I'd answer your questions. What do you want to know?"

Shepard got her priority back on track to her people, "The last thing I remember is the _Normandy_ blowing up and a bug bite. Did anyone else make it?"

"Just about everybody survived. A few servicemen from the lower decks didn't get out. Navigator Pressly was killed by an explosion. But everyone else, including the non-Alliance crew—the asari, the turian and the quarian—they all made it out alive."

"Do you know what any of them are doing now?"

"I don't know, Commander. It's been almost two years. They've moved on. Left the Alliance. Could be anywhere."

"They were my team. They'd…" Shepard then had a thought that shot back to something Jacob said earlier, "Were they the ones who mounted the rescue mission?"

"All I do know is that they weren't a part of that mission. It's hard to explain right now, but we need to get off the station. If we can still get off the station."

* * *

><p>Six ran into her third YMIR heavy assault mech in her search for pockets of survivors within the station. So far she's only encountered the dead or soon to be dead Cerberus scientists. Six continued her experimentation of the mechs, and as she did she tried to run Miranda's logic through her own head. The empirical evidence was there, but the motivation, without the motivation it seemed to lack the drive to go to such extremes as hacking every mech on the station. Six used the kukri to watch the YMIR before she moved on it, rushing at it and sliding underneath it before it could start firing on her. Six then jumped onto its back, ripping out as many circuits and wires connecting the head as she could until the lights on it started to shut down.<p>

She jumped down and kicked it down onto the ground before she picked up on a rather weak signal. "_Check. Check. Anyone on this frequency? Anybody still alive out there? Hello?_"

"_Wilson? This is Jacob. I'm here with Commander Shepard. Just took out a wave of mechs over in D Wing._"

"_Shepard's alive? How the hell…never mind. You need to get her out of there. Get to the service tunnels and head for the network control room._"

"_Roger that, Wilson. Stay on this frequency._"

Six reviewed her work on the mechs, though now everything Miranda said was starting to truly fall into place. _You do that, and I might find more reason to shot you on sight._ Six muted that channel as she linked to Miranda's omni-tool, "Lawson, do you read me?"

"_Kinda busy clearing out the mechs you missed._"

"You need to get to the shuttles. I won't make it in time. Wilson is still trying, and Jacob is with her now. They are unaware of his intentions."

"_I'll get there soon. And I'll be waiting._"

* * *

><p>Cutting though more mechs, Shepard and Jacob found Wilson on the ground and bleeding. "Jacob. Shepard. Down here. Bastards got me in the leg."<p>

Shepard though recognized his face now, "You were there the first time I regained consciousness."

"Yeah. That was me." Wilson cringed with pain as Jacob removed the slug from his wound, "How about we talk about this after we fix my leg?"

Jacob looked over to the wall, "Should be some medi-gel in the first aid station on the wall. Hopefully there's enough to get him up and moving again."

Shepard grabbed the contents and applied it to Wilson's leg. The anesthesia was taking effect as Wilson got back up, "Thanks, Shepard. Never thought you'd save my life. Guess that makes us even now. I thought maybe I could shut down the security mechs. But whoever did this fried the whole system. Completely irreversible."

Jacob turned to Wilson with some scrutiny, "We didn't ask what you were doing. Why do you even have security mech clearance? You were in the bio wing."

"Weren't you listening? I came here to try and fix this. Besides, I was shot! How do you explain that?"

Shepard though wasn't really in the mood to debt this now, "You're all strangers to me. Let's get someplace safe, then we'll sort out whose fault it is."

Jacob agreed, "Right, Shepard. We need to find Miranda. We can't leave her behind."

"Forget about Miranda," Wilson frantically pleaded with him, "She was over in D wing. The mechs were all over that sector. There's no way she survived."

"A bunch of mechs won't drop Miranda. She's alive."

"Then where is she? Why haven't we heard from her?" Wilson looked to Shepard trying to convince her, "There are only two possible explanations: she's either dead…or she's a traitor!"

Shepard couldn't disagree more, "Then why did she wake me up and warn me about the attack?"

"Okay, maybe she's not a traitor. But that doesn't change the facts. We're here, she's not. We need to save ourselves. The shuttle bay is only a few…" the doors on the far end opened as a group of mechs came through.

Shepard shot the head off the first mech as Jacob used his biotics to throw one around. Wilson tossed an Overload tech attack to destroy an explosive canister blocking their path and took out the last mech with it.

With the coast clear, Shepard pressed on, only for Jacob to stop her, "OK, we took 'em down, but this is getting tense. Shepard, if I tell you who we work for, will you trust me?"

Wilson grabbed Jacob's shoulder, "This really isn't the time, Jacob."

"We won't make it if she's expecting a shot in the back."

Wilson took his hand off, crossing his arms, "If you want to piss off the boss, it's your ass, Jacob."

Jacob turned back to Shepard, "The Lazarus Project, the program that rebuilt you…it's funded and controlled by Cerberus."

Shepard's mind was still her own, and her memories were just as sharp as ever. "I wiped out my share of Cerberus projects when I was a Spectre. Back then, they were trying to kill me. Why the change of heart?" she was now wary of both Jacob and Wilson.

Jacob tried to think of the best way to say, but he couldn't, "Those answers are way above my pay grade. But basically—things change. The Alliance declared you dead. They gave up. Cerberus spent a fortune to bring you back. Look, I'd be suspicious too. But right now, we have to work together. I thought you deserved to know what's what. Once we're off the station, I'll take you to the Illusive Man. He'll explain everything. I promise."

"Illusive Man? Is he in charge of all this?" this was new information to her.

Wilson nodded, "Yeah. That's not his real name, of course. Nobody knows who he really is."

"It was a code name the Alliance used for him. It kinda stuck."

Shepard walked away from Jacob, "I don't care what they did or what you say—I'm not working with terrorists!"

Jacob sighed, "You can tell it to the boss. But after we've saved our butts. We're almost at the shuttles."

* * *

><p>Another failed attempt at saving lives… Six was starting to get sick and tired of not being able to do anything with her enhanced training and combat skills to save lives rather than take them. She just had to hope that she could reach the shuttles before Shepard and Wilson, or Miranda beat them to it.<p>

As Six worked her way back to the shuttles, she spotted Miranda speaking with Shepard and Jacob, with a dead Wilson at Miranda's feet. Six kept her distance uncertain as to what was going on just yet as she heard Shepard questioning Lawson, "What about the rest of the people on the station?"

"This is the evac area. If they're not here now, they're not coming."

"We can't leave without knowing for sure. We need to go back and look." True to her nature, Shepard wasn't willing to leave without doing everything possible to save lives.

Six walked into the hallway, "There are no other survivors, ma'am."

"Six?" Shepard turned not expecting to see any of her former crew on a Cerberus station. Though looking back, a few oddities seem to make sense now.

Miranda smiled, "Does that satisfy you, Commander. There's no one left to save. Nevertheless, you're the only one worth saving. Everyone else is expendable."

Jacob nodded in agreement, "She's right. We all knew the risks when we signed up. Without you, there's no point to any of this."

Shepard was still looking to Six, trying to understand the situation before her. Six though crooked her head away from Shepard, as though she really didn't want to be seen like this. She already got a number of questions answered from Miranda, and she knew she wasn't going to get anything from Six in the current company. "I've had enough of this station to last a lifetime."

"Or two, in your case. Come on." Miranda moved aside to allow Six to get to the shuttle and prepared it to take them to the secondary station to meet with the Illusive Man.

* * *

><p>While on transit to the new station, Miranda had Shepard's memories tested to ensure she was still herself, reviewing her personal history with her parents in space, her achievement during the Skyllian Blitz, Virmire and even recommending Captain Anderson for the position of Council member. Even after everything they'd been through together, Six remained quiet and distant from her, trying to avoid her at all cost. As Shepard met with the Illusive Man, Miranda decided to chat with her.<p>

"So, do you think there'll be any trouble with her?"

"I don't think so."

"I was referring to between the two of you. I've watched the vids. She had trust in you and now the truth. Still think she has any trust in you?"

Six could see where Miranda was taking the conversation, and she didn't like it. "Will you be alright with taking commands from her? Illusive Man will undoubtedly put her in charge of our next mission. Think you can take orders as well as you dish them out?" At least that got her to back off, though Six returned back to the shuttle, ready to leave when Shepard was finished speaking with the Illusive Man.

* * *

><p>During Shepard's meeting with the Illusive Man, she asked him several questions about these abductions and why Cerberus was involved and not getting the Alliance to respond. Shepard finally asked him, "<em>You could have trained an entire army for what you spent to bring me back. Besides, you have Six and the Prothean vision. What do you need me for?<em>"

The Illusive Man was standing next to her hologram, "It's true, the vision and Six's combat prowess are, on their own, impressive and remarkable assets. But Six is just a soldier, a fact she is well aware of. However, you're unique. Not just in ability or what you've experienced, but in what you represent. Six and the visions were the catalysts, but it was you who stood for humanity at a key moment. You're more than a soldier—you're a symbol. And I don't know if the Reapers understand fear, but you killed one. They have to respect that."

Shepard was hesitant, mostly from her experience with Cerberus in the past. "_If what you say is true…if the Reapers are behind this…I'd consider helping you._"

"I'd be disappointed if you accepted any of this without seeing for yourself." The Illusive Man walked back to his chair, "Six will be piloting the shuttle to take you to Freedom's Progress, the latest colony to be abducted. Miranda and Jacob will brief you."

Though she once trusted Six, now she wasn't certain anymore, but she wasn't willing to give up on her just yet. The other two however, "_Miranda killed Wilson in cold blood. Jacob's just a gun for hire. You expect me to trust them?_"

"Wilson was one of my best agents. But he was a traitor. Miranda did exactly what I expected of her. And she saved your life in more ways than one. Jacob's a soldier, one of the best, though not in league with Six. She is on her own level, well beyond anyone I've ever seen. Jacob's never fully trusted me, but he's always been honest about it. You'll be just fine with them…for now."

She still didn't like the Illusive Man's tone. "_Is this a volunteer job, or am I being volunteered?_"

"You always have a choice, Shepard. If you don't find the evidence we're both looking for, we can part ways. But first go to Freedom's Progress. Find any clues you can. Who's abducting the colonies? Do they have any connection to the Reapers? I brought you back. It's up to you to do the rest."

* * *

><p>After Shepard's meeting with the Illusive Man, Six could see Shepard speaking with Jacob and Miranda. She could already guess as to how both of those conversations went; Miranda snapping at Shepard for her idealism and 'questionable' stance, whereas Jacob was more of the naiveté, believing in Cerberus' ideals but not looking too deeply at their darker areas or what they're willing to do for their goals. Unfortunately these tactics weren't something new to her, all too familiar with assassination orders she had received from her superiors against other UNSC personal. Six wasn't in on what they were doing or why, just to fly them to Freedom's Progress and follow Shepard's lead. Six hated being left in the dark, but like before this was nothing new to her. She just had to follow orders and hope for a quick resolution as usual.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Too many games…trying to…keep up…writing…must speak with Shatner pauses…


	6. Lost Progress

Shepard spoke with Miranda and Jacob to get a feel for the two of them. She felt only hostilities from Miranda and Jacob was rather lax in comparison. She wanted to speak with Six, though she wasn't sure if she'd yell at her or just question her. Instead, Shepard decided to just let her be, allowing Six to fly them to Freedom's Progress along with Jacob and Miranda. After going over the final details with the two, they were now at Freedom's Progress.

Six programed the landing zone as she walked back with her DMR in hand and shotgun attached to her back. Shepard also noticed she had Kameko hanging on her armor, an indication that she wasn't expecting any trouble. Shepard grabbed the M-8 Avenger to get ready as Six walked out the shuttle first.

Six was already inside the first prefab structure as the lights kicked back on from their movement. As the others joined her, Six was hovering a hand over one of the plates. Jacob didn't like this, "Looks like everyone got up and left right in the middle of dinner."

Six walked away. "Food's still warm. Whatever happened moved fast."

Continuing through the buildings, the scene continued to get even weirder. "Strange. No bodies. No structural damage. No signs of battle."

Six opened the next door only to be shot at by a pair of LOKI mechs. Six quickly retaliated, placing a shot into the faces of each mech. A howling sound started to echo out, "FENRIS mechs incoming."

"Strange. Security systems were disabled at the other colonies."

Six shot another LOKI mech's head as Miranda used a tech mine to disable the other. The two dog-like FENRIS mechs continued their charge as Jacob responded with his shotgun and Shepard took the other one out with her assault rifle. Miranda and Six destroyed another pair of LOKI mechs that arrived where the first two were.

Jacob kicked the FENRIS he shot, "Those mechs shouldn't have been hostile. They should have recognized us as human."

"Someone reprogrammed them to attack on sight. We're not alone here."

Continuing through the empty buildings felt more like walking through a warehouse of them. It continued to feel like that until they were greeted by another FENRIS and LOKI mech. Six stood behind Shepard ready as she opened the door.

The door opened to three quarians who were overviewing a map, Shepard Jacob, Six and Miranda had their weapons ready, as did the quarians and the male among them started shouting, "Stop right there!"

"Prazza! You said you'd let me handle this!" A female quarian pushed the male's rifle down as a Sangheili warrior fully encased in combat armor walked up behind her. He had a hand on the handle of his energy sword should the need arise though he followed her led. However the female quickly recognized two of them, "Wait…Shepard? Six?" Shepard recognized her voice now too, Tali, though she looked different, her hood was styled completely different from when Shepard had last seen her and her envirosuit has definitely been modified. Shepard signaled the others to lower their weapons, though Six wasn't responding.

Prazza was also unwilling, "I'm not taking any chances with Cerberus operatives!"

"Put those weapons down!"

"I'd do what she says." The voice was definitely Six's, but it was coming from behind the quarians. Prazza felt something clink against the back of his helmet. Glancing back, he found Six slowly reappear behind him with her pistol pointed at him as her combat knife was gently placed along the chin of the quarian with the shotgun as it edged ever so closely to her neck.

The Sangheili with them didn't seem too interested in fighting until now, "A hologram and active camouflage. Clever, demon. I see why the Light of Sanghelios viewed you as such a worthy adversary."

Prazza looked back to him, "Do something, Vaht! You're here to protect us!"

Vaht looked back to Miranda, the only threat he seemed to recognize, "I am only here to protect my charge. The demon clearly only has intentions on killing you three for your threat a moment ago. I will deal with this human, for her eyes betray her motives. The eyes of a Kig-Yar when they find treasure they are willing to kill for."

When Prazza and his men finally put their weapons down, Six did the same, putting her pistol and knife away while returning to Shepard's side. Tali could see Six was still as lethal as ever, "Thank you for not killing them outright, Six," though Shepard, she wanted something to confirm it was really her. "Shepard? Is that really…is she…?"

Shepard knew of only one thing to prove herself, something she did completely off the Alliance's records. "Remember when I gave you that geth data, Tali? Did it help you complete your Pilgrimage?"

"Yes, it did," this was information only the _Normandy_'s crew knew about, something only the real Shepard could have known about. With this confirmation, Tali turned back to the others, "This is definitely Commander Shepard."

Prazza heard the old stories Tali had told, "Why is your old commander working for Cerberus?"

"I don't know. Maybe we should ask her."

Six really didn't want to go into details about the past year or so, "After Shepard was captured…I went to Cerberus to save her. She was…injured during the rescue. Their scientists took all of this time to repair her. We've been assigned to her to investigate the latest colony to disappear."

"A likely story," Prazza quickly shouted, "No organization would commit so many resources to bring back one soldier."

Six looked back to Prazza who took a step back when she did. Tali just as quickly responded, "You haven't seen Shepard in action, Prazza. Trust me. It was money well spent." She then had a thought, "Perhaps we can work together. We're here looking for a young quarian named Veetor. He was here on Pilgrimage."

Shepard looked around, "Isn't that a little strange? A quarian visiting a remote human colony?"

"Quarians can choose where they go on Pilgrimage. Veetor liked the idea of helping a small settlement he was always…nervous around crowds."

Prazza had his own views on the matter, "She means that he was unstable. Combine that with damage to his suit's CO2 scrubbers and an infection from an open-air exposure, and he's likely delirious."

Tali disregarded Prazza's comment, "When he saw us landing, he hid in a warehouse on the far side of town. We suspect he also programmed the mechs to attack anything that moved."

Shepard didn't like having two people she still didn't trust watching her back, or someone she was now questioning her trust. But Shepard knew she could at least trust Tali, "Veetor's the only one who can tell us what happened here. We should work together to find him."

"Good idea. You'll need two teams to get past the drones, anyway."

Prazza was against this notion, "Now we're working with Cerberus?"

"No, Prazza, you're working for me. If you can't follow orders, go wait on the ship." Tali had indeed change from when Shepard last saw her, a bit more headstrong then what she remembered.

Vaht growled, "Disobedience within the Covenant was often responded with harsh punishment. Sometimes death. If you have any opinions about your commander's orders, I suggest you speak out now before your actions can be viewed as insubordination." Though the Covenant has become an independent body, the transition for its soldiers has not been a simple one.

Tali's tone quickly changed as she turned back to Shepard, "Head for the warehouse through the center of the colony. We'll circle around the far side and draw off some of the drones to clear you a path."

Shepard still wasn't sure where this aggression was coming from, "Your people really don't like Cerberus. What did I miss?"

Prazza stared at Miranda, "They killed our people, infiltrated our flotilla, and tried to blow up one of our ships."

Miranda had that smug smile of hers, "That's not how I'd have explained it, exactly. It was nothing personal."

Vaht snarled, "I was amid the fleet when Cerberus attacked. They came for a human biotic girl who was allowed into the fleet for temporary refuge. A scout ship's crew was slaughtered for that infiltration."

Six though turned back to her, keeping things between the two of them, "The most likely scenario is what the quarian and the Sangheili are claiming, ma'am. Cerberus doesn't usually let things go when they want it. They were probably after the biotic child."

Jacob tried to calm the situation before it got violent again, "We can argue over who killed who later. Right now, we've got a job to do."

Tali wasn't one to agree with Cerberus, but they had other concerns, "Agreed. We work together to get to Veetor."

Shepard nodded, "Make sure to keep in radio contact."

"Will do. Good luck, Shepard." Tali stopped, "Whatever happens…it's good to have you back." Vaht continued to gaze upon Miranda, even as they were leaving until the quarians were moving off on their own path.

* * *

><p>Fleet Master Rayta has continued to monitor the fabrication and distribution of weapons and equipment, as well as followed galactic news of the strange abduction of human colonies. Thus far, he and his top strategists have only been able to determine that these unusual abductions occur on colonies within the Terminus Systems due to the instability caused by pirates, mercenary bands and any territory dispute they fight. Moreover, as hard as they tried, they couldn't seem to find any other correlation between the colonies or even a means of predicting which colony would be attacked next. Even the Oracle, Lamenting Light, couldn't understand the unorthodoxed means by which the enemy was selecting which human colony to attack or how efficient they seem to be at it.<p>

The Fleet Master has also made another move that many felt to be a betrayal to their Covenant, however it was a measure that they needed. The Unggoy, the once lowly workhorse of the Covenant, were now allowed to trade openly with the humans on a more regular basis. The Kig-Yar felt they were more qualified to be the merchants instead of the Unggoy. The Fleet Master wasn't as convince, worried the Kig-Yar would simply abandon them as the others did if they had control of a ship. With the Unggoy, he had some semblance of faith that they would be capable of acquiring fair deals, but more so he knew they would return. Along with a Sangheili-Yanme'e guard detail, there was less to fear from pirates or raiders.

* * *

><p>Shepard's group was double-timing it now after Tali informed them of Prazza's betrayal in his attempt to acquire Veetor before they could get there. Miranda destroyed the last of the flying sentry turrets when Tali contacted them again, "<em>Hurry, Shepard! We're inside the loading docks. Veetor reprogrammed a group of heavy mechs! They're tearing Prazza's squad apart!<em>"

Miranda scoffed at them, "They did want to get to Veetor first."

"_Get your squad into cover and I'll open the loading bay doors._"

Shepard signaled Jacob and Miranda to position as Six took cover on her own. "Tali, we're in position. Open the doors!"

The doors opened to a rather unfortunate scene as Prazza and two other quarians were retreating before an YMIR mech stomped through, killing them with relative ease. Prazza was torn to shreds by the YMIR's chain gun as the mech pinned another underfoot before unloading against her. The YMIR quickly switched to its rocket arm and then killed another pair who tried to fight from a distance.

Vaht was busy dueling against three YMIRs, slicing the first to ribbons with duel energy swords. Vaht quickly moved to cover before the remaining YMIRs could gun him down. The YMIR that killed Prazza's team turned toward Shepard's position, "That mech's got heavy armor plating. Those quarians never stood a chance."

"This is going to be one tough son-of-a-bitch to take down."

Six looked to a nearby prefab structure, "From this position. Ma'am, keep it busy."

"Six wait for my orders. Six!" Too late, she had already disappeared and ran into the building as the YMIR was focusing fire on Shepard's position. Miranda tossed a tech mine at the mech drawing its attention away from her. Shepard started firing on the mech too, drawing its attention from Miranda's position now.

Six was behind the YMIR now, quietly moving closer to the back of the mech. Six quickly got herself into a sprint now and jumped onto the YMIR, jabbing her knife to get a better grip on. The mech tried to shake her off but with the knife imbedded at a joint that allowed the head to look side to side and Six started ripping out several important wires, punching her fist through the back just to pull more of them out.

Six's attack caused the other YMIRs to turn to try to aid in the removal of Six leaving them wide open for Vaht. He jumped on top of the machine, running both blades through the head and body as deep as he could before he jumped onto the second, doing the same thing as before.

Six eventually removed the YMIR's power core, forcing the massive mech to collapse. This distraction also gave Vaht the opening he needed to finish the two YMIRs with an energy sword through the power cells. She retrieved her knife before ripping the head off to ensure it didn't get back up. "Six," Shepard walked up to her, "I told you to follow my lead!"

"I removed the thing stopping us from reaching the quarian. It's just like Chora's Den."

Shepard didn't know what to do with her now as she seemed to have regressed back to her lone wolf attitude, but right now she wanted to get answers from Veetor first. Shepard noticed their Sangheili ally returning to one of the structures, probably checking in on Tali. Opening the door they found the quarian working on a terminal in the dark with minimal amount of lighting and talking aloud to himself, "Monsters coming back. Mechs will protect. Safe from swarms. Have to hide. No monster. No swarm. No-no-no-no-no."

"Veetor?"

He didn't even look to them as he continued to work, "No Veetor. Not here. Swarms can't find me. Monsters coming. Have to hide."

"Nobody's going to hurt you anymore."

Jacob couldn't help but feel sorry for him. "I don't think he can hear you, Commander."

Shepard activated her omni-tool and found the frequency he was using. She then disrupted the monitors to get him to look. When Veetor finally noticed them he seemed confused even further than before. "You're human. Where did you hide? How come they didn't find you?"

"Who didn't find us?"

"The…the monsters. The swarms. They took everyone." Veetor was still shaking, possibly sick, but it was probably his nerves still rattled from the attack.

Shepard continued to be patient with him, explaining calmly, "We're not survivors, Veetor. We just got here."

"You don't know. You didn't see. But I see everything." Veetor activated the console as the monitors were displaying a recording.

"Looks like security footage. He must've pieced it together manually."

"What the hell is that?"

"My god. I think it's a Collector."

Six looked away, not in fear or horror, but remembrance. Shepard felt like she had seen them before too but she couldn't remember where. "Is that some kind of alien?"

As Jacob and Miranda started talking about them, Six switched over to Shepard's private comm, "_Ma'am. Those are the things that attacked the Normandy. They even had you in one of those pods. The burning one, it knocked me aside like I was nothing. Remember?_"

Her memories of the attack were still jumbled up, but she did have a feeling of familiarity. Returning to the conversation, Veetor was pointing to the smaller insects flying across the screens, "The seeker swarms. No one can hide. The seekers find you. Freeze you. Then the monsters take you away."

Shepard turned to Jacob and Miranda, "I want to know more about the Collectors."

"Nobody knows much. They're so rare a lot of people don't even believe they exist."

Miranda however turned back to the screens. "More importantly, why are they abducting human colonists? What are they after?"

"Maybe the Illusive Man can figure it out."

"_Or he knows a lot more than he's willing to tell us…_" A scenario Shepard feared to be the most likely.

Shepard returned to Veetor, "Tell me more about these swarms."

"It's how they find you. Seeker clouds. Machines like tiny insects. They go everywhere. They find you. Then they sting you. Freeze you."

Miranda took a closer look at one of the bugs on the screen, "Sound like miniature probes, maybe. Find victims, then immobilize them with a stasis field or nerve toxin."

Six was still looking at the bugs, remembering how similar insects were chewing on Shepard two years ago. "Why didn't the Collectors take you?"

Veetor sulked, shaking his head, "Swarms didn't find me. Monsters didn't know I was here."

Jacob was still fixed on the videos, "The Collectors aren't known for being careless. Maybe his enviro-suit kept him from showing up on their sensors."

Miranda though quickly countered, "Or they were using technology specifically designed to detect humans. Only human colonies have been hit."

Shepard looked back to Veetor, "What happened next?"

Veetor pointed to the Collectors, "The monsters took the people onto the ship, and then they left. The ship flew away. But, they'll be back for me. No one escapes!"

Six turned to Shepard, "This is probably all he knows, ma'am."

Shepard nodded, "We appreciate what you told us. You were very helpful."

"I studied them. The monsters. The swarms. I recorded them with my omni-tool. Lots of readings. Electro-magnetic. Dark energy."

"We need to get this data to the Illusive Man. Grab the quarian and call the shuttle to come pick us up."

Soon the door behind them opened as Tali and Vaht walked in. Vaht stepping between Shepard's team and Veetor as Tali joined him, "What? Veetor is injured. He needs medical treatment, not an interrogation!"

Jacob tried to ease her mind, "We won't hurt him. We just need to see if he knows anything else. He'll be returned unharmed."

Miranda was quick to snap back, "Your people tried to betray us once already. If we give him to you, we'll never get the intel we need."

"Prazza was an idiot, and he and his men paid for it. You're welcome to take Veetor's omni-tool data, but please. Just let me take him."

"Besides," Vaht was now looking down to Miranda and Jacob, "I know humans like these two. They will turn the questioning into an interrogation when he is unable to provide sufficient information. My people would kill our prisoners once their usefulness had come to an end. You are no different from the UNSC. What care would you have for the life of an alien? Especially one as ill as this young one?" If Vaht wasn't wearing a fully enclosed helmet, Shepard felt that he might be exposing his teeth right about now.

Six knew all of that to be true, but this was Shepard's call fortunately. She had faith in that. She also knew Shepard would want to reunite with the others, Tali at least. "This is your mission, ma'am. Your call. Not Miranda's."

Shepard nodded, turning to Tali, "You don't have to take Veetor and go. We could work together. Just like old times."

Tali wanted to hear that, it was something she needed to hear, "I want to, but I can't. I've got a mission of my own. It's too important for me to abandon, even for you. When it's over, and I'm still alive, we'll see what happens."

"That sounds dangerous. What are you doing?"

Vaht still wanted to kill Lawson at the very least to keep the secret, but Tali was able to calm him a bit. "I don't think Cerberus needs to hear about it. But it's in geth space. That should tell you how important it is."

Shepard looked back to Miranda, "He's traumatized, and he needs medical care. Tali will give us the omni-tool data and take him to the flotilla."

Miranda was obviously displeased with Shepard's orders, but she begrudgingly followed it with a scowl, "Understood, Commander." That put a smile on Six's face, even if no one else could see it.

"Thank you, Shepard. I'm glad you're still the one giving the orders. Good luck out there. If I find anything that can help you, I'll let you know." Vaht gently guided Veetor out of the room as the three of them left and went back to their shuttle.

Six followed suit to retrieve the shuttle and extract the others from the colony. Shepard looked back at the image, an uneasy feeling washing over her about the whole situation. Everything fell into place too perfectly, arriving before the Alliance, meeting up with Tali…the Illusive Man didn't pick this place randomly, like Six said, he knew more than he was willing to give, and Shepard had to tread lightly in these dangerous waters.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I've been working through this and forgot to post the next chapter. But now it is the end of yet another year for us to begin anew and rejuvenated.


	7. Omega Protocol

Having returned to the station, Shepard was speaking with the Illusive Man about Veetor's findings, though Shepard was getting some information on the Collectors, she was getting the distinct feeling of being given the run around. Though everyone from her previous team was currently unavailable, and the Illusive Man was rather reserved about Tali and Liara. Shepard still didn't like the idea of working with Cerberus, everything in her being was telling her to walk away now, but seeing Six again and the threat posed to humanity, could she really leave that burden to her, especially with how shelled she had become. "You worry about the Collectors, I'll make sure my team's ready."

"_Good. Two things before you go: First, head to Omega and find Mordin Solus. He's a brilliant salarian scientist. Our intelligence suggests he may know how to counteract the Collectors' paralyzing seeker swarm._"

"I haven't even started, and you're telling me what to do."

"_I'm giving you direction; what you do with it is up to you. I'm sure you'll make the right decision._"

"Alright. What's the other thing?"

"_I've found a pilot I think you might like. I hear he's one of the best. Someone you can trust._"

The Illusive Man deactivated the comm, though why the abruptness she became rather suspicious, or at least until she heard someone from behind. "Hey, Commander. Just like old times, huh?"

Shepard and Joker were walking together, "I thought you used crutches?"

"Turns out the Covies are good for more than their guns." Jeff displayed a strange belt he was wearing as he suddenly started floating a few inches above the floor. "Antigrav belts. They said something about the previous owners having no further use for them. Their loss."

* * *

><p>While Shepard confronted the Illusive Man about the information obtained on Freedom's Progress, Six was standing in the hanger of the <em>Normandy SR-2<em>. She knew Shepard was now playing into the Illusive Man's hands, and there was nothing the two of them could do about it. Six was now standing on a spot designed just for her as a large ring came from the flooring and encircled her with several little arms at the ready. Six threw her arms out as the ring started rotating, undoing the locks binding her armor together and pulling them off section by section. "Halt." The arms stopped at her command as she slipped her arms free of the last pieces of armor still on. She stopped the procedure to remove her combat knife and Kameko from her chest piece, "Proceed." Six's arms were out again as the ring and its many arms continued to pull her armor off as though it wasn't interrupted before. With the last of her armor removed, the ring and her armor sank back down below the floor as she stepped off.

Six's armor removal seemed to have drawn a small crowd, though the moment she looked up to them they all retreated, pretending to be doing something else. She didn't care, she was fixing Kameko and wrapping her onto the knife as the knife in turn was being fitted to her undersuit.

Six entered the elevator, pausing long enough to feel the docking clamps holding the ship to the station detach. Shepard and the pilot were now on the ship and they were on the hunt for any means of destroying the Collectors. Shepard will undoubtedly wanted to find a means to rescue the captured colonists, but Six knew the probability of finding survivors were low and Cerberus would want samples of their technology.

Reaching the CIC deck, she saw Miranda and Jacob already introducing Shepard to EDI as Shepard seemingly joked, "Helmsmen aren't happy when someone takes control of a ship away from them. Especially Joker."

"That's not why she's here, ma'am." Six walked over to them now.

"Noble Six is correct. Mr. Moreau's talents will not go to waste. During combat, I operate the electronic warfare and cyberwarfare suites. Beyond that, I cannot interface with the ship's systems."

A new holographic display of gridlines segmented into lines appeared next to EDI's, "In conjunction with the Enhanced Defense Intelligence systems, we provide mission analysis and up-to-date parameter changes for your objectives."

Six turned to the two holograms, "Dot has access to a limited number of systems and monitors EDI's activity. EDI can only monitor systems Dot permits, and as stated before that's limited to say the least."

Shepard was fixed on Six, who continued to avoid true eye contact. "Anyone, or anything, else I should be acquainted with?"

Six turned to Dot, "Initiate the defense protocol demo. CIC Deck only."

Sections of the walkway propped up to become defensive positions as dual machine gun turrets and autocannons revealed themselves from the walls around them and demonstrated their 360° arc as well as their impressive turning speed. Now a larger turret appeared above the galaxy map itself with two barrels, one pointed at the elevator and the other toward Joker and the airlock. Shepard was impressed, though she looked to Six with some concern, "Are you sure that's enough?"

"This is only the CIC Deck defenses," Six nodded to Dot as the defenses were recalled, "Other measures have been implemented as well. Secured weapon lockers on every deck accessible only during anti-bordering actions and keyed to crew member signatures, hidden stairways leading to the other decks, med bay panic room, laser mines, though a few other defensive plans were left out during final production."

"The Director attempted to incorporate many of your suggested defensive measures, Noble Six. However a number of them would only be survivable by the crew with MJOLNIR Mark V armor systems and SPARTAN-enhanced reaction time."

EDI then chimed in, "All defensive protocols demonstrated are routed through Dot's server, separated from the rest of the _Normandy_'s systems and running on an independent power supply designed to outlast most power failures."

Six walked away, "I'll be waiting for you in your quarters, ma'am."

* * *

><p>Six had been waiting for about an hour and a half now, taking a quick rest in the chair at the desk, waiting for Shepard to arrive. She knew Shepard was looking at all of the changes, getting to know the crew. Six remembered the care Shepard gave to those under her command, even to complete strangers such as herself or Urdnot Wrex. In truth this hour of rest has been the most peaceful she's had in years now. Yet despite all of that, she quickly got back up when she heard the door to the cabin open.<p>

"So, let's talk."

Six nodded, "First," turning to a nearby holographic panel, "Dot. Oly Oly Oxen Free." The cabin lost power for a moment before emergency red lighting activated. Then after a few more seconds the lights kicked back on and everything seemed normal again. "Now we can talk."

"What did you do?"

Six looked away, "When the SR-2 was still under construction, the Illusive Man had the entire ship outfitted with hidden security cameras and recording devices, all of which were filtered to EDI and sent directly to him for review. With Dot in the system, I gave her an override command that just disabled all of said devices in your cabin for the next hour or so. I didn't think the Director would have let such a feature pass."

Shepard was even more suspicious now about the situation, especially since she doesn't know what to believe about her anymore. "That's not going to be enough time. Especially with everything you have to answer for. So let's start with the first matter. You, O'Brien, Cortez. You were you all with Cerberus from the beginning?"

"At the time of our arrival, we were retreating from Reach, the planet that we had just lost to Covenant forces. Our arrival into this universe wasn't the best first encounter. We were apparently captured by a turian patrol while I was, indisposed. We couldn't understand a word from them, nor did we really care. We were following Cole Protocol, randomly Slipspace jumping away from Earth and the Inner Colonies until confirmation that Covenant forces were no longer in pursuit, and if need be, destroy all navigational data to prevent the location of Earth from being learned by the Covenant. After our escape from the military satellite we were approached by a Cerberus agent offering sanctuary. He was human, that was enough for us to follow, for the time being."

"That's it? That's why you're with Cerberus? Because they're human?"

Six closed her eyes, "From a strategic standpoint, ma'am, the UNSC losing Reach would be the equivalent to the Alliance losing the Arcturus Station along with the fleet charged with being last line of defense for Earth against invaders who have essentially been unstoppable for nearly three decades. We lived by a simple rule; if it wasn't human, shot it. It wasn't like we had anywhere else to go and, at first, it appeared to have been genuinely an organization looking out for the benefit of humanity. At least until we started to dig a bit deeper. When Cortez and I learned of Cerberus' shadier activities, we were trying to find a way for us to get the three of us and Dot out before it was too late."

"So why didn't you. Dot seems to respond to you."

Six turned to the holo display by the empty fish tank, "There is another with us. Dot calls him the Director. We suspect he's ONI, Office of Naval Intelligence. And back then, Dot took orders from the one with the highest rank. And ONI outranks many military commands."

"Back then?"

Six looked back, "For some reason or another, Dot has been referring to me as the senior member. Why, I don't care. But once this mission has been completed, I'm hoping we can completely sever the connection to Cerberus for good."

With how much Six has regressed, Shepard had some concerns, "And just how were you planning to 'sever' the Cerberus ties?"

She looked Shepard directly into her eyes, "The removal of all Cerberus personnel that I have identified, agents with psychological profiles similar to Miranda Lawson and anyone else unwilling to leave the organization, the termination of EDI, or at minimum, destruction of all Cerberus uplink and communication lines. Dot already has a command function that will permanently disable all monitoring devices that can only be executed by me. When that happens, Cerberus won't exactly look kindly upon the act." Six had really regressed, more so than Shepard could have anticipated. The only real change was the fact that she was willing to walk around the ship in her undersuit and she was now a bit bolder about having Kameko out in noncombat zones. "I would advise reviewing the dossiers of your potential recruits. Some of them will be trouble. The Warlord and Convict in particular."

* * *

><p>After their chat, Six returned to the hangar to get prepped for their arrival on Omega, assuming Shepard was going to follow Cerberus' advice and look into acquire the salarian scientist first. Upon docking with the decrepit looking mining station they were greeted by a slightly deranged elder salarian with missing teeth, "Ah! Welcome to Omega! You're new here, aren't you? I can always tell. Allow me to—" To the salarian's left three T'vaoans approached them. The salarian looked slightly terrified when he saw them, "Oh…Hello, Chur'R-Zer! I was just—"<p>

The lead T'vaoan growled at the salarian, and the device strapped to its neck started to speak with an angry feminine voice, "Leave, Fargut. Now. Before we drag you to feed the hungered!"

Fargut saluted, backing away, "Of course, Chur'R-Zer! Whatever she wants!"

Chur'R-Zer's T'vaoan to her left snapped at Fargut to get him to run faster. Six was ready to attack, but these T'vaoans weren't here for a fight, yet. Chur'R-Zer looked up to Six for a moment, turning to Shepard, "Welcome to Omega…Shepard."

"You know who I am?"

Chur'R-Zer snarled, "Of course. We remember Saren wanting your head. But don't think we didn't notice your entrance into the Terminus Systems. You're not as subtle as the UNSC. Aria wants to know what brings a Spartan and a dead Spectre to Omega. Present yourselves at Afterlife before doing anything here."

Shepard hadn't fought against many Kig-Yar herself, but she was certain that her squad could handle them. "Cut the attitude. I'm not here to cause problems for Omega."

Chur'R-Zer turned to Six, "With a SPARTAN, death will always follow. And things explode around you both, like Virmire. Aria wants to protect her station, by keeping our eyes on you. Afterlife. Now." The three T'vaoans quickly ran off, one of the T'vaoans turned back to growl at them.

"_Noble Six, we have just received quarantine warnings for the Gozu District. The district is also the location of Dr. Mordin Solus' clinic. Probability of resistance is high._"

EDI joining Dot, "_I have also accessed messages between mercenary groups regarding plans to deal with Archangel. There's a recruiting station at Afterlife that may have information on him._"

Six tapped Shepard's shoulder, pointing to a human in yellow armor and only one shoulder guard who had cornered a batarian. "That him. The Veteran." Shepard continued to watch Massani interrogate the batarian, kicking him in the gut as she approached. While Shepard was recruiting him, Six had other concerns on her mind, privately chatting with the AIs. "EDI, Dot. I want all the intel Cerberus has on this Aria woman."

Dot was the first to chime in. "_Aria T'Loak, also known by some as the Pirate Queen of Omega. She is an older asari that has run Omega for a few centuries. Cerberus has little intel on her past before her emergence as ruler of Omega._"

"_And even less when it comes to her activities._" Six was looking at the door the T'vaoans ran through as EDI continued. "_She does not like outside observation and does not tolerate failure within her ranks. It is speculated that any crime committed here is done with her full knowledge, and for some, exchange of profit._"

"That would explain why the Jackals and Skirmisher are here. They probably managed to break away from Fleet Master Rayta at some point and came here for employment." Six was brought out of the conversation when Zaeed shot his prisoner's knee.

After Zaeed left to drop off his prisoner, the squad continued into Omega. Once the doors fully opened, Shepard and Six had their first look at the alien mining station turned hub, the bustling streets, grimy equipment, and a line of individuals trying to get into a club called Afterlife and an elcor bouncer stopping them. Six wasn't surprised when she started to spot Kig-Yar snipers watching their movement, her training telling her to start eliminating them as quickly as possible.

Shepard could see Six was already getting head counts, "So, how bad is it?"

"We could bring down about a third that are here, if we time our shots and use the shuttles to protect us, but we wouldn't last long against them once reinforcement showed up."

"_Affirmative,_" Dot affirmed, "_Based on statistical combat data and available Omega traffic information, it is calculated to be roughly three minutes of combat before all ally forces became deceased._"

With little else to go on, Shepard decided to follow the advice of the Kig-Yar and meet with Aria. The bouncer looked to Shepard, allowing her and her team to skip the wait and proceed to the door guards. The batarian check the datapad when he looked to Shepard, "Yeah, you're good," opening the door and closing it once they were through.

They were now in a walkway that seemed to act as a lobby before the actual club and many of the patrons were looking toward them. One of the batarians reached out to Six, "Ah, look at the little baby carrying around its favorite toy."

Inches from actually touching Kameko, Six pulled the batarian over her shoulder, slamming him onto the ground and twisting his arm around so she could easily rip it off if she applied another ten pounds of pressure. Six aimed her pistol at the batarian with the assault rifle on his back, "Touch her and lose the arm, and three of your eyes." The batarian mumbled, so Six twisted just a bit more, "Clear?"

"Clear! We're clear!" the batarian was slapping the floor with his free arm trying to have Six let go.

Six pulled his arm back into its proper placement, throwing him back to his friends, "You should see a doctor about that bad elbow, friend."

The three batarians ran away now and as they did Shepard looked to Six, "Was that really necessary?"

"They don't deserve much better treatment than that. Humans are hated out here and treated like vermin. They're just looking for an excuse to pull the trigger. And I won't let them touch my things."

Entering the bar the center had a massive holographic pillar with a disc as strippers danced around it. There were a few bars and a couple of strippers dancing on tables for the paying patrons. Six could see the eyes gazing at them, mostly from the Kig-Yar and T'vaoans that she could see, but Aria's guards were also keeping watch of them as they approached the elevated booth.

Shepard climbed the stairs alone to the asari who was looking out to the bar. "That's close enough."

Like a signal or a command from the asari, one of the turians pulled on pistol on Shepard, shaking his head and stopping her advance. The batarian to her left also took aim. Out of reflex Six took aim at the guards at the doors with her pistol and DMR while Miranda and Jacob took aim at the guards pointing guns at Shepard. The two strippers flanking Aria retrieved weapons from the couch aiming them toward Six with several Kig-Yar aiming at her associates from the rafters.

The asari who called out earlier continued to watch the rest of the bar, signaling her people to stand down. The batarian moved to Shepard with his omni-tool active, "Stand still."

The batarian guard started scanning Shepard. Shepard displayed her pistol, "If you're looking for weapons, you're not doing a very good job."

"Can't be too careful with dead Spectres," the asari barely glanced back to her, "That could be anyone wearing your face. Though I've heard plenty about your lethal friend already," a Kig-Yar jumped down with a Needle Rifle in hand still aimed at Six's head.

Shepard signaled to the others to stand down, "I was told to speak with you."

"They're clean," the batarian moved aside.

Aria finally turned around, "I wanted to see the imposing Spartan that had my latest employees so scared shitless." She was looking to Six now, getting a quick read on her. "So I'll assume you have questions."

"You run Omega?"

Aria chuckled, somewhat amused by Shepard's ignorance, she turned back to the bar, stretching out her arms, "I am Omega." Aria lowered her arms, looking back, "But you need more," she turned and looked off to Shepard's right, "Everyone needs more of something. And they come to me." Aria walked back speaking to Shepard indirectly, "I'm the boss, CEO, queen if you're feeling dramatic. It doesn't matter. Omega has no titled ruler and only one rule." Aria finally sat down, "Don't fuck with Aria."

Six was focused on the hidden dangers from above, counting how many Skirmishers and Jackals she could take out before having to duck to cover somewhere or use a body for a temporary shield. She could see here former enemies were also concerned with how to deal with her and how many will die trying to bring her down.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I don't believe I need to say what happened to the previous owner of that antigravity belt, do I? I also never liked how little the Normandy had in anti-boarding defenses. So Six decided to fix that mistake.


End file.
